The Smurfs That Canon Forgot
by ScarletteFox
Summary: Season 9 of The Smurfs starts within the smurf village and then proceeds to follow the adventures of the characters who become lost in time. But what of the village and the friends that they left behind?
1. Chapter 1

**Note: Directly follows on from Season 9's "The Smurfs That Time Forgot". Some notes if you haven't recently seen the episode and need a refresher: the smurfs need to return the small dinosaur named Crinkles into its own prehistoric time because being in the smurfs' time is bad for its health. Grandpa Smurf is in possession of some time crystals that can get the job done. When leaving, many of the smurfs get unexpectedly taken along back in time due to a mishap. If you want to be clear on everyone taken time travelling, see note at end.**

"Come along now youngins, you ought t' be getting to sleep, it's way past your bedtime. Don't want you to be catching a cold, now." Farmer tugged at Slouchy and Nat's arms.

"Mmm, and that certainly wouldn't do" Woolly Smurf chimed in helpfully with a chuckle, "You should go to bed and rest up well for the morning for when the others are back. You don't want to be feeling all sick when they return, do you?"

In fact, at this point it was past just about everysmurf's bedtime, yet very few smurfs had decided to call it a night. Papa Smurf was usually the smurf who made sure that the smurflings got to bed on time and tucked them in and such. Nanny had given permission for the smurflings to wait up a little longer for Papa and the others to return, but it was quickly becoming apparent that they may all be waiting a little longer than expected, and the smurflings needed sleep. Some smurfs were starting to realise that they needed to step in and do _something_ , or else the smurflings would continue to just be left out here in the biting cold. They needed sleep and the warmth of the indoors.

"How much time has passed now since Papa and the others left to return Crinkles, Father Time?" Nat asked, ignoring Farmer and Woolly's gentle urging.

Completely out of place in the small mushroom-enshrined village, Father Time had, for his part, promptly sat down and begun waiting along with the others soon after his arrival. The smurfs had done their best to help him get comfortable and keep warm, but there was only so much that could be done – they didn't exactly readily have resources on hand equipped for someone that wasn't smurf-sized. Father Time was jolted out of his thoughts by the little smurf who addressed him, but was not given an opportunity to reply before Nanny stepped in.

"Never you mind little ones, all that matters right now is that you go and get some rest. I'm sure Papa and Grampers and everyone else will be back in the morning!"

"In the morning… what happened to them getting back tonight?" Nat asked.

"I think everyone will be here when you wake up tomorrow, won't that be smurfy? The sooner you go to sleep, the sooner you'll see everyone again!" It was clear from this response that Nanny had hardly heard what Nat had said.

"I don't want to miss their big return!" Nat insisted, and Slouchy nodded sedately in agreement. Nanny let out a sigh.

"Please smurflins, let me take you back to your mushroom. We're not saying you'll miss the big return, why you may wake up just in time. The earlier you fall asleep, the sooner you can wake up tomorrow so you don't miss it" Farmer offered.

"Gee Farmer, we can't just go back to our rooms without Snappy and Sassette. How will we ever be able to fall asleep knowing that they're not here with us? Who knows what they're up to right now. No Papa Smurf to wish goodnight to – no, we want to stay up and wait with everyone else." Slouchy's voice grew more and more firm as he went on, full of resolve.

Nearby, Weepy Smurf burst into tears again and was ushered away by some other smurfs, putting some more distance between the sounds of his cries and the smurflings so as not to cause alarm.

"If you really want t' wait out here with us… I guess one night can't hurt too much" Farmer said, defeated, and the two smurflings instantly cheered. At a bit of a loss, he looked around for any signs of some other smurf stepping in to help manage this situation. Whether to offer assistance or override his decision completely, he didn't care. His place was in the fields, not with handling the smurflings.

"Say, why don't you… go and get your tents and sleeping bags. We still expect you to get some sleep" Nanny said with finality before adding on with a faint smile, "And we promise to wake you the moment anything happens!"

Nat and Slouchy raced off to collect their things, not wanting to miss anything while doing so.

Nanny turned to Father Time once they were gone. "Say, what _is_ keeping them all? I mean, they do have the time crystals right, so shouldn't they surely have the ability to decide when they return?" she shook her head. "What's the point of keeping us all waiting like this?"

Father Time was at a bit of a loss. "Well, for them, it may not be the case that they are intentionally "keeping us waiting" at all. Time is relative – it's true that they could have all returned immediately after they left in the first place, with hardly a minute passing in our own time, but with much more time passing for them, and their mission to return that dinosaur having been accomplished. But my understanding is that it's difficult for the crystals to be so exact to the very minute when returning people to their own time. When people aim to return to their own time that doesn't usually amount to one minute passing since they left, more like usually half an hour or more, perhaps..."

"Well, we can certainly be sure that more than half an hour has passed" Farmer said impatiently. It sounded to him as if Father Time had just waffled on rather aimlessly in an attempt to sound reassuring, but it only cemented the notion in Farmer's mind that something was awry and that the very man who was supposed to be an expert on time didn't know what to do.

"I'm sure everything is fine, there seems to be a slight delay but there must be a good explanation for that" Father Time replied calmly as the smurflings returned. Some other smurfs greeted them and started to help them set up their stuff to settle down for bed.

"'Spose you'll be telling us that only time will tell, eh?" Farmer prodded the man, who only let out a small, nervous chuckle in response.

"You know, this is a good idea if I ever saw one" they overheard Harmony commenting as he finished up setting up the little beds for the smurflings, "I think I'll go and grab my things and join you!" some other smurfs murmured in agreement and also walked off into the directions of their homes.

"Father Time, it's far too late and cold for you to stay out here with us, you should really be gettin' back to your own place" Woolly prompted, "We wish we could offer you a room to stay in, but uh..." he trailed off awkwardly.

"No, no, it's fine, I can catch up on sleep later. I'm already out here and going back home now would be more trouble than it's worth..."

And so he stayed with them all, and the night wore on. The smurflings were soon asleep, and the other smurfs were beginning to follow, either setting up their own sleeping arrangements and clustering together for warmth before nodding off, or retiring into the comfort of their own homes. Father Time's eyes closed for extended amounts of time intermittently, but for the most part he remained awake. Two smurfs in particular seemed determined to stay awake with him – Nosey and Reporter. He realised that Nosey must have been snooping around and listening in on their conversations all evening, and had overheard Reporter asking Nosey for any details he had come across. Naturally, if there was any sort of story to be had concerning the time crystals and the brief journey undertaken by the seventeen missing smurfs, Reporter wanted to be the first to get his hands on it. But even the burning curiosity of these two smurfs who wanted to be the very first to witness anything gradually became quelled by exhaustion, and they succumbed to sleep.

The sunrise was stunning, but Father Time alone was awake to observe it. Bathed in the beauty of the morning, he could temporarily put the fact that Papa Smurf had not yet returned with his fellow smurfs to the back of his mind.

 **End Note: In total, 17 smurfs go back in time with the time crystals as follows: Papa, Baby, Brainy, Clumsy, Grandpa, Greedy, Grouchy, Handy, Hefty, Jokey, Lazy, Painter, Sassette, Smurfette, Snappy, Vanity and Wild. In addition, Nanny's pet Smoogle was also taken along.  
Next chapter will be up soon.**


	2. Chapter 2

Everyone slept in longer than usual. Once Harmony was awake, he made sure to rouse everyone else with a blast of his horn, much to their chagrin. As the smurfs had awakened one by one, Father Time was bombarded with questions and he was burdened with the unpleasant task of informing them that there had been no miraculous return while everyone was asleep. This was quickly apparent to the smurfs who had slept outside and yet they asked hopefully after Papa and the others anyway, in the off-chance that they had slept through the return, and that the seventeen smurfs had come back and were currently catching up on much-needed rest in their homes where they belonged. A couple of smurfs came running out from their homes at different times, eagerly asking for updates and prepared to be angry if they had been left to sleep through the return.

Once Harmony's horn blared, the remaining smurfs came quickly running out from their homes or sat up from their makeshift beds on the snow outside.

Actor Smurf got up as usual, hungry and ready for breakfast. To him, all that he knew was that a loud noise had woken him and in his sleepy state confused it with the breakfast call. He went outside expecting to be greeted by delicious smells but instead stopped short when he was met with many smurfs milling about aimlessly and – Father Time?!

The events of the previous evening all came rushing back to him and it hit him that they _still hadn't come back_. There were seventeen smurfs unaccounted for right now, and he was thinking of breakfast?! He'd just assumed they'd return during the night.

The villagers were starting to exchange looks of concern and a muted kind of panic was beginning to spread among some. Everything was supposed to be sorted out yesterday, and barring that – this morning. No, they were probably getting worried prematurely. They could be back any minute, so there was no use getting worked up right now. Right?

"Th-th-th-they still aren't back!" Scaredy covered his eyes and shook.

"Aw, that's enough of that! It's early in the day. They have all the time in the world to get back to us, yeah! Why don't we give them the benefit of the doubt, huh? The last thing I want is for them to get back from a time-travelling adventure to a bunch of miserable smurfs!" called out Tuffy Smurf. "We gotta be a little bit more patient, that's what we gotta do!"

"You're right. Have a bit of faith, smurfs!" Harmony agreed.

Father Time stood up from his sitting position and all eyes turned to him. If this was his only reason for standing, it was entirely unnecessary considering that he towered above the smurfs even when he was sitting down.

"Yes, I don't necessarily think we have cause for concern right now. After all, Papa Smurf is with them, and so we can rest assured that the expedition is in good hands – of course, you don't need me to tell you that, heh. In any case, I think there may just be a slight delay in their return for some logical reason currently unknown to us, and so for the time being, all we can really do is continue to wait. I'm afraid that I do have some matters that I need to attend to today, but you can be sure that I will return here this evening to check up on the village, and if you need me before then you can come to my dwelling to find me. But I think that the chances are very high that all of your fellow smurfs will be back before sunset."

The smurfs bid Father Time farewell and Nanny told him firmly to make sure to get some rest too. And once he was gone, it was a matter of consciously maintaining a positive atmosphere, keeping their spirits high, or distracting themselves. Some smurfs were better at it than others…

"I'm really hungry…" Sloppy Smurf announced, and was met with a chorus of agreement. None of them had eaten breakfast yet, after all, considering that there had been no Greedy Smurf around to make it.

"I should have thought of that..." Nanny muttered, "I should have realised someone would need to make breakfast… I could have done that, easy."

"No, Nanny. We all expected Greedy to be back f'r breakfast. And we've all been busy thinkin' about other things, no need to claim the blame for this" Woolly patted her on the shoulder.

"So... what are we going to eat?" Tracker asked.

"Well, don't be silly, we're smurfs, aren't we? And do we not have a huge stockpile of smurfberries? So what are we waitin' for!" Nanny steeled herself and replied incredulously.

"Well… Of course, we don't usually just eat smurfberries and sarsaparilla leaves for breakfast. Greedy, well, cooks us up something nice, normally…" Poet pointed out.

"Well, fiddlesmurfs!" Nanny laughed, "You smurfs've been spoiled rotten for far too long, don't you know that food's food? Now c'mon, let's go get our breakfast!"

Everyone was hungry and so no-one was about to complain. Smurfberries and sarsaparilla leaves tasted just fine – it's just that, it wasn't the same compared to something like Greedy's porridge or Greedy's pancakes. It didn't feel like breakfast, but then again, this was no ordinary breakfast under ordinary circumstances in the first place.

"Boy, I sure hope Greedy is back in time for lunch" Nosey Smurf said ruefully and garnered a few laughs.

"We don't know what Greedy went through – er – is going through in the dinosaur ages, he could be really tired when he gets back! Would we really make him cook up our lunches right away?" Weakling Smurf objected, having taken the statement entirely at face value.

"Well, knowing Greedy… making a meal is just what would cheer him up and cause him to stop feeling tired!" Nosey grinned.

Weakling Smurf couldn't help but smile, "More like eating a meal."

Scattered good-natured laughs gave way to sighs. "I do hope we all get to see Greedy again today. And not just because he makes the tastiest meals you can imagine."

Suffice it to say, Greedy was not there to make them lunch. All the smurfs had for themselves was a bowl of smurfberries for breakfast and a bowl of smurfberries for lunch. It was starting to look like they'd be having smurfberries for dinner too.

Some smurfs were torn between attending to their own matters or milling about in the main village to be at the ready for the return of the missing smurfs. Others took to passing their time in the village itself – two birds, one stone.

"Maybe they won't arrive in the same place they left?" Poet wondered, "What if they landed somewhere in the forest?"

"Well then they could be anywhere! We can't just go around searching the whole forest, especially in these kinds of temperatures!" Timber said in exasperation.

Poet sighed, "You're right. Well I sure hope they arrive in the village, or that they're making their way here right now."

The sky started to grow dark, and everyone started feeling rather hungry. No one wanted to bring up the issue of dinner. No one wanted to concede to eating another meal without the missing smurfs.

Father Time returned to the village as promised.

"I'm sorry I'm late, I took an afternoon nap once my tasks were done and slept a bit through my alarm. Have Papa Smurf and the others returned yet?" He needed only to glance about at the glum faces before him to determine the answer to that question. "...I see. Well, that is quite troubling..."

He sat down heavily on the ground and the smurfs all gathered around.

"Just what is going on with them, Father Time, what's up with those time crystals!" someone called out.

"Could they have landed somewhere else – say, in the forest, for instance?" Timber asked, echoing Poet's earlier remark.

"I – I don't know. Not unless there was a malfunction with the crystals or some kind of mistake was made, I – I just don't understand it" he said softly, looking at the ground. Everyone fought to keep their panic and their despair at bay. Just one day, it had only been one day, it was nothing, it was no big deal.

 _Except when you're time travelling, when you have the ability to return to any point in time -_

No, there could be any number of reasons why they weren't back yet – _you have the ability to return to any point in time – except if something went wrong -_

Father Time looked at them all.

"There's no reason to worry too much just yet-" he began.

"Of course not!" Tuffy shouted, more anxiously than anything else, "I'm not worried at all. Those smurfs'll be back soon. We _can't_ just…!"

"Yes, of course," Father Time continued, "There's many different possibilities here. I must admit that it seems not everything has gone according to plan, but it could simply be the case that the time crystals are malfunctioning somewhat, throwing off their time of arrival back to us or their destination. So their return could be off by a few days – a week – a few miles –"

Scaredy sunk to the ground, shaking all over. _None_ of this sounded promising. So they could land somewhere dangerous? They could land right in the middle of Gargamel's lair! They could-

Father Time went on. "The possibilities are... endless. But Papa Smurf is with them, it's surely a minor setback they've encountered-"

 _And there was no guarantee they even survived the mission to return that little dinosaur back home._

"What do you suggest we do?" Nanny demanded, "You yourself stand there sayin' the possibilities are endless, yet you tell us everything is probably fine?!"

"I'd continue to remain on the lookout over the next few days, with luck Papa Smurf and Grandpa Smurf will be able to get everyone back-"

"What do you think went wrong with the time crystals, Father Time?!"

"Everyone, please try to stay calm. As I said, it could be a problem with the time crystals malfunctioning. How they might have malfunctioned, I'm not entirely sure. Or – well, I'm sure, I mean the time crystals and their key are in good hands. I'm sure neither Papa Smurf nor Grandpa would have misplaced them-" Father Time didn't sound fully convinced.

"But it wasn't just Grandpa and Papa who were sent back in time like it was supposed to be… What if they did lose the crystals or that key you were so worried about?!" another smurf spoke up.

"Well..." Father Time hung his head. "If we are considering those as possibilities, then… It's possible that they are all… lost in time..."

Some smurfs let out cries, some slumped, and others remained frozen where they stood.

"Without the crystals they wouldn't have a method of travelling through time, without the key… They wouldn't have a way to return to our specific point in time…"

"If I could just TRACK them!" Tracker yelled unexpectedly – he practically screamed the word "track". "But no, they've travelled through time, there is no trail for me. But can't you track them?! You've got to have some way! You're Father _T_ _ime_!"

"I-"

"Couldn't you just go after them? We know where they went – back to return that creature! We could just travel back to that point in time and find them!"

Father Time was shaking his head sadly. "The dinosaurs were around for… a while. I don't know which specific point they went to, or the exact place they landed, nor do I know what crystal combination they used, we could search for forever and not find them..."

"But you're Father Time" someone muttered bitterly, "Doesn't that mean that _you_ have all the time in the world?"

 _And how could they know the poor missing smurfs hadn't simply had some tragedy befall them all soon after arriving back in time? If something went wrong and they had no way of travelling elsewhere, they would have lived for the rest of their lives surrounded by dinosaurs and be long dead either way. What practical difference did either of those scenarios make to everyone right here, right now?_

"Those time crystals are just about impossible to track… I would need to have a very clear idea of exactly where and _when_ to look. But at least we have some inkling of how far back they went… I will start making some investigations into it when I return back home, although I'm afraid that I can't promise anything will come of it. As I said, I think we should all also continue to hold out hope for some time. If there are any new developments, please come and see me immediately, and I will continue to stay in close contact with all of you. I must be going now… I'm terribly sorry that you are all going through this..." Father Time took his leave with his head hung low.

Nanny commanded everyone's attention once Father Time left.

"Alright smurfs, you heard what Father Time said earlier. The others may be coming back at any time, so there's no use moping around for the time being. And Father Time just might be able to find some way to track them too, you never know! Until then, we all need to make sure that we keep this village running smoothly, y'hear me?"

Discussion broke out amongst everyone. The missing smurfs could be back by tomorrow, or they could be back next week. _Or-_

Waiting until tomorrow was one thing, but it was true that they all couldn't afford to neglect their duties and their day-to-day lives until the other smurfs returned, seeing as they didn't know exactly when that would be.

First thing's first -

It was time to have a bowl of smurfberries for dinner.


	3. Chapter 3

"Nu-uh, we're not going back to our rooms, not without Sassette and Snappy!" Nat was adamant.

Slouchy nodded. "We're going to sleep outside again, like last night."

"Very well…" Poet sighed, "I suppose… I'll set up my bed outside here with you. The night sky is a great source of inspiration..."

"Don't you smurflins be making a habit of this!" said Farmer firmly, "I be thinking this should be the last night the two of you sleep outside. Else you'll both become copies of Sickly Smurf."

Several other smurfs murmured their agreement; they didn't want Slouchy and Nat to fall ill on top of everything else that was going on.

"One more night" Nanny reiterated, "But if they aren't all back tomorrow, you'll be sleeping indoors, and that's final."

The missing smurfs did not return the following day. Or the day after that.

A week passed, and there was still no sign of them. A small amount of short-term work redistribution was required given that they were all currently seventeen smurfs short, but other than that, the village was able to largely continue running as normal… As normal as it could possibly be with so many smurfs missing. The smurfs continued going about their lives in a practiced, careful way, doing their best not to mention the vanished smurfs for the time being, doing their best not to be thinking about them constantly, not letting it ground the village to a halt. Because they'll be back. They could be back at any moment.

But underneath the surface, everyone was deeply worried and distressed. It was just a matter of being able to distract yourself – to suspend your negative thoughts – until everyone was safely back in the village. Then this nightmare would finally be over.

A group of smurfs set off to go and see Father Time. When the man saw them, his eyes lit up. "Are they back? Any updates?"

"No, Father Time. We were hoping to ask you the same question. Do you have any updates? Were you able to find any trace of them?"

"I'm very sorry, I'm afraid not… I would have come to you right away if I did. I've been trying to search for them as thoroughly as I can, but..."

Despair gripped at them all.

"If they spent an extended amount of time in the dinosaur ages, then their concentration in that time and place will be particularly strong and easier to pick up on, so there is still hope. Or they could return soon to us and we needn't worry about searching for them..." said Father Time.

"Extended amount of time? How long do you mean, exactly? So if they lost the crystals and just hung around with the dinosaurs for YEARS you're saying you _may_ have a better chance of finding them?! You're saying you could bring them back next week but _years_ would have passed from their point of view?! That's – Baby Smurf could be _talking_ and we-" Harmony Smurf clutched at his heart.

"I'm saying that is one possibility that would make them easier to pick out in the time stream, yes, and the fact that it's a large group travelling together as opposed to a single individual helps matters as well. But if they travelled elsewhere and didn't stay in the same timezone or place with the dinosaurs for very long… that would make finding any trace of them much more difficult..." _Or if something_ _bad_ _happened to them soon after they travelled back in time._ _Those are some of the possible explanations as to why he's been struggling so much to detect any potential sign of the lost smurfs._

"Great, so they could be anywhere, any _time_ , and they could return to us at any possible moment – smurf, they could be arriving back in the village right now as I speak, or they – they might not even come back at all. And you might find them, or you might not. And even if you _do_ find them, they might all be decades older than when we last saw them." Reporter had to struggle to keep his voice from breaking.

Father Time could only fiddle uncomfortably in response to this. What could he possibly say to them?

"...I'll keep searching."

/ / /

"I think we ought to go to Homnibus tomorrow and let him know what's going on… He's probably wondering why Papa Smurf hasn't been in contact lately..." Harmony said softly as they made their way back to the village.

They updated the others over their smurfberry dinner. There was no point in continuing to ignore the situation at hand.

"So Father Time might be able to bring them all back… but if he does they could all be much older…?" said Nat.

"Wow, can you imagine… Sassette and Snappy not being smurflings anymore… Them becoming adults while we're still smurflings?" added Slouchy. They couldn't fathom the idea. But it was far more preferable than considering the possibility of the smurfs not returning at all. "Would they get their own mushrooms? Would they even still wanna stay in the same mushroom house with us together…?"

"Slouchy, please" Nanny's voice trembled, "I don't want to think about this. I just hope it was a small error and that they'll all be back before Christmas." She didn't know if Grampers could necessarily afford to wait around with the dinosaurs for _decades_ until Father Time showed up to rescue them all. It wasn't just smurfs that had been taken away by the time crystals either. She missed her poor Smoogle dearly.

"If they did come back much older – if we wanted – if _they_ wanted, there's Father Time's clock that could-" Flighty glanced at Nat and Slouchy, "Dial back their ages a little..."

That wouldn't be any use for Grampers if he wasn't able to be brought back.

"Papa Smurf would want us all to be strong, and to continue on as normal!" Tuffy declared in an attempt to help boost everyone's spirits. With any luck, this whole ordeal would all be over by Christmas.

/ / /

In fact, Christmas was rapidly approaching. In the lead-up to the holiday, correspondence was sent out to Mother Nature, Marina, King Gerard and Johan and Peewit as well as the other friends of the smurfs to inform them all of the situation. There was a swift outpouring of well wishes and concern, with everyone offering to help in any way they can despite not knowing how they could. Homnibus was also updated on what had happened, but sadly did not seem to be able to do anything to help them either.

"I'm terribly sorry, but time travel is completely outside of my domain – Father Time handles all of that, I'm afraid. Please let me know if there's any other way I can help you though, and please keep me updated. I- I really hope they all get back safely." he didn't know what else to say, but cut himself off before he simply started babbling on meaninglessly about how much he hopes it all works out well. No matter how upset he was currently feeling over this, he knew it must be much worse for all of the smurfs.

/ / /

No one was making any Christmas preparations, and no one was in the mood for celebrating Christmas. They just wanted their fellow smurfs back – they didn't need anything else for Christmas. Maybe there would be a Christmas miracle.

Instead, everyone decided to start setting out to make preparations to dedicate Christmas to the missing smurfs – an act of coming together and wishing that they could be here with them. Poet already only ever seemed to be composing poems about the missing smurfs these days, so everyone could rest assured that he would have no shortage of material to read on the day.

They even convinced Nanny to cook up something good so that they could have a feast – they all knew that Nanny could cook a little, but she was adamant about not becoming the new village chef. She had her own responsibiities to take care of and would not cook meals for dozens of smurfs three times a day, especially since a smurf's natural and healthy diet just consists of smurfberries anyway, she said. It also went without saying that she couldn't live up to Greedy's cooking… But relented that perhaps she would make a special dinner for everyone once every one or two weeks so that they could all take a break from the monotony of smurfberries and sarsaparilla leaves. Just until the missing smurfs got back, of course.

So it was that the smurfs all gathered around the fire with food on Christmas Day to talk about the absent smurfs, how much they missed them and of all the ways they enrich each of their lives, Puppy curled up mournfully alongside them.

Poet read out many of his poems. His selected poems in turn did not manage to talk about all of the missing smurfs, and some smurfs featured more heavily than others – like Papa Smurf, Baby and Smurfette. The possibility that anything might have happened to Baby chilled them all, but they allowed the memories they had of the lost smurfs to warm their hearts. Poet talked about Painter's artistic skill, Snappy and Sassette's boundless energy, and Clumsy's big heart, among some of the other smurfs and their good qualities. The others started contributing their own sentiments.

"Poor Jokey missed his birthday, he wasn't here for us to help him celebrate it… I actually kind of miss his surprises even though they'd just about always blow up in your face..."

"Who can forget Grandpa's stories?"

"It's like we barely had the chance to spend any time with Wild and now..."

 _Grouchy with all his grouching, too, was sorely missed…_

 _Vanity, Lazy, Hefty, Handy, Greedy… Smoogle..._

They all reminisced and shared stories for a while.

Reporter Smurf shuffled through some of the notes he'd prepared for this sharing session. "Oh and uh – Brainy!" he blurted out suddenly.

"O-oh! Yeah!"

"Brainy..." Slouchy said sadly with a smile, and Nat decided to share the story of the time the bespectacled smurf had declared himself a friend to all the animals.


	4. Chapter 4

"What are you doing in Papa Smurf's lab?" Nosey Smurf asked abruptly, causing Dabbler to almost drop everything that he was holding.

"Nosey! Don't scare me like that. I don't want to damage any of Papa Smurf's things!"

"So… what are you up to?"

Dabbler sighed. "We're about to go into the new year and Papa and everyone else still aren't back – so no one in the village knows how to use magic. I figured… Maybe I could try my hand at learning a couple of spells? Just in case. And if someone gets sick and magic is required to cure them, even with my knowledge as Doctor Smurf, I can't help much if I don't know how to use magic."

"Hmm… If we need any magic help we can just go to Homnibus" Nosey pointed out.

"Yeah, but… What if there's no time? What if the village is in danger and we need to use magic fast? We gotta make sure there's still a village for them all to come back to."

* * *

Father Time's voice shook. "I promise, I really tried, but I just can't find any trace of them. It's been months, but I have no leads. I don't know what I can do."

" _Keep searching_!" Tailor yelled back before breaking down into sobs. "Just – Just _keep searching_!"

They could still come back. They could still come back. _But if they were able to return, wouldn't they have returned before now? Why would they wait several months?_ _The margin of error for the_ _time_ _crystal_ _s' ruby_ _key is long past…_

"I'm so sorry..."

* * *

The seasons changed.

* * *

Dreamy Smurf was in the midst of enjoying a warm, pleasant evening to himself outside. It wasn't night just yet – the sun was still preparing to start making its way down past the horizon, and so it hung low in the sky. The air was so clear, and Dreamy breathed it in deeply as he closed his eyes. He could smell the sweet scent of the nearby flowers.

The wind must have picked up suddenly because he heard a _whooshing_ and a – a faint chiming sound? He cracked an eye open.

A rainbow blur.

A – tornado?!

 _A rainbow tornado had materialised down out of the sky above the village._

He could see – blue blurs – being thrown out of it unceremoniously -

WAS THAT-

"NORMAL CLOTHES," he heard a familiar voice shouting in joy, and Dreamy was up and running before the shout was even over.

"LOOK, OUR NORMAL CLOTHES!"

"The village! Oh my smurfness, _we're here_!"

"IT WORKED!"

"We're back!"

* * *

Papa Smurf was at risk of being crushed by the barrage of smurfs that rushed at him.

"Be careful! Be careful of Baby!" Lazy could be heard saying as he struggled to move among the sheer density of the crowd.

"I _hate_ "careful of Baby"!" Grouchy said, despite doing an excellent job of protecting the little smurfling from the crowd's onslaught.

"Smoogle!" A dark-pink blur went flying through the air and attached itself to Nanny.

"Is it really you, Smurfette?" Poet asked between sobs. The blonde-haired smurf was also being overwhelmed by smurfs on all sides.

"Well, of course it is!" Smurfette's face shone, "Who else would it be?"

"You're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen" was all that the stunned Poet could muster in reply.

"Well, I never! Poet, you're saying that to the wrong smurf!" Vanity injected pointedly.

Weakling, Tuffy and Weepy clutched at Hefty from within the crowd, all teary. Hefty, for his part, was speechless. Everything around him was so overwhelming. He gradually managed to find his voice again. "I – I missed you all too!" tears slipped down his face, his voice drowned out by the other voices coming from all directions.

"Aw, I knew I should've eaten that cupcake before we left" Greedy said sadly as he looked at the crushed mess on the ground that the excited smurfs were stepping all over, it having been thrown from his hands when landing. Sweepy Smurf's arms were wrapped around him tightly and his grin was wide. "Never mind, mate! We can make you all the cupcakes you want, a whole feast of them! Can't believe you're all finally back!"

 _Finally?_ Confusion flickered briefly over some of the faces of the returned smurfs who overheard this.

At last, the intensity of the crowd subsided somewhat so that everyone had a bit of breathing space once more.

"Well, that's a warm welcome if I ever saw one, you all absosmurfly swamped us!" Grandpa remarked. He had drawn Clumsy close so that he wouldn't get hurt or trampled in the crowd.

"I _hate_ swamped!" Grouchy agreed.

Nanny Smurf firmly bonked Grandpa on the head. "You all have some explaining to do!" she choked out.

"Explaining?" Jokey repeated.

"It's been – so _long_!" Weepy howled, "We thought you all were…!"

The returned smurfs exchanged some startled looks.

"What in smurf happened to you all?" Sweepy added.

"Hmmm." Papa Smurf frowned. Looking around at the smurfs who hadn't gone time travelling, there hardly seemed to be any dry eyes. A couple of small things had been nagging at him… But everyone had all gotten so swept up in the reunion. Of course all of the formerly time travelling smurfs were extremely happy to be back home in their own time and place, but in fact none of them had been prepared for such an intense and emotionally-charged reception upon being back in the village again. "We're very sorry for worrying you all like that, my little smurfs, but..." he suddenly realised one of the things that was bothering him. Hadn't it been winter when they first used the time crystals?

He cleared his throat. "You say it's been, ehem, "so long"? How long has it been… exactly?"

Dozens of eyes stared at him.

"Papa Smurf, it's been..." Tailor Smurf thought to himself momentarily, "Well it's got to have been well over six years since we've last seen you all."

Papa Smurf froze.

"Sacré bleu!" Painter couldn't believe his ears.

"WHAT!" Brainy yelled incredulously, "SIX YEARS?! _SIX YEARS_?!"

"...Well, more than six years really, if we're being exact-"

"That can't be right!" Handy gasped, "It certainly doesn't feel like it's been that long!"

"Heeey, what kind of a joke is this to play on us?" Jokey asked, rounding on Tailor. "Give me a break! We've been through a lot, you know!"

"You've been through a lot? _You've_ been through a lot?!" Dreamy exclaimed angrily, " _We thought you were all dead!_ "

Brainy was busy bouncing about indignantly. "SIX YEARS… Ooooooh, that wizard! That good-for-nothing wizard!"

"Err… what wizard?" said Sweepy.

"...Gargamel?" asked Timber, equally baffled, but Brainy wasn't listening.

" _That no-good wizard_!" he abruptly spun around, facing the other returned smurfs once more, "I warned you all, but did you listen?! Papa Smurf, you should have let me double-check his calculations! He messed up, just like I thought he would!"

"That's quite enough, Brainy... I think the important thing here is that we all _did_ get back, albeit a little… late," Papa said, ignoring Brainy's continued angry muttering, "But I suppose it's better late than never. I think we all have quite a lot to catch up on."

"I'll say!" Sassette stepped out from deep in the crowd. "Now that ya mention it, there seems't be somethin a little different about Slouchy and Nat!"

Sassette, Slouchy, Nat and Snappy had all naturally managed to find each other in the chaos during the initial reunion. They'd been too busy embracing and exchanging exclamations to take much note at the time, but now it was clear that there was a bit of disparity among the smurflings. Not a whole lot, but it was there. When they all stood together, it was plain to see that Slouchy and Nat were now taller than the smurflings who had gotten caught up in time travel.

"I guess I'm not the shortest smurfling anymore" Slouchy said with a smile.

* * *

 **Author Notes**

(for people who might not be very familiar with the season 9 plot of the show): when the smurfs went back in time they lost the ruby key. So they could still travel through time to other places but had no sure way to make it back to the village.

More than once in the show the smurfs actually do come extremely close to making it back home with the correct crystal combination, and it's always been due to the help of some outside figure who is very powerful/has magic and the ability to do that. Honestly, instead of blindly trying to get the right crystal combination they should have all specifically tried seeking out powerful beings that may be able to help them in each place they visited, if applicable. They would have had a higher chance of success that way.

Next chapter should be up next week as usual :')

–

 **You: So how did the time-travelling smurfs make it back to the village?  
Me: Uh, A Wizard Did It **


	5. Chapter 5

"You've all aged by just around seven months" Father Time informed them all. The returned smurfs, along with Dreamy, had taken the trip out to his home that morning.

"So that's how long we were time travelling for, hmm..." said Vanity as he gazed into his mirror. "Years pass and this face barely ages, how about that?"

"Well it certainly felt like forever!" Brainy snapped.

"You know… I really wish I could have gone travelling through time too… Some of those faraway times and places sound really smurfy" Dreamy admitted with a sigh. "Seven whole months full of pure adventure..."

"We didn't know if we'd ever be able to smurf back home," said Hefty sternly. "That made it kind of difficult to enjoy whatever places we went to. It wasn't just "pure adventure", Dreamy, it was like being constantly on the run."

"It might just sound like fun and games to you in theory, but all the adventure in the world can't beat being able to sleep in your own bed at night" Lazy added.

Handy glanced over at where Papa Smurf was engaged in conversation with Father Time before speaking in a low voice. "Towards the end of it all, Papa started getting a little – he was just under so much stress all the time. He could never get the right crystal combination. It's about a one-in-a-million chance that he could have gotten it right on his own, or even with Grandpa's help, after all. Of course he did his best to stay positive, and for the most part he succeeded – for a while. But there's only so long even someone like Papa Smurf can keep that up in the face of constant failure, or that level of pressure. He seemed pretty miserable for a little while there. Grandpa had to wrestle those time crystals off him just to give him a break at times; he wouldn't let anyone else touch them."

Dreamy reflected on this. Yeah, it was hard to stay positive in the face of difficult odds, didn't he know it. He'd lived out that reality along with the rest of the village that had been left behind. They kept up hope – until they couldn't anymore. They knew that there was always the _chance_ that the lost smurfs would return, but it was a very slim chance, and the more time that passed the more unlikely it seemed. They'd already held onto that possibility for so long that they had no choice but to put it to the back of their minds just to be able to keep moving forward in their lives. At length, they put it to rest, and they moved on, because what else could they do?

They'd all carried the hope within them throughout their days, and then they carried the grief that piled up when the hope ran out. And then, eventually, things seemed almost normal, or at least the version of "normal" that the remaining villagers had constructed for themselves.

And then, the missing smurfs had come back.

Normal? Who was Dreamy kidding… What had followed was a different, harsher status quo.

Was it a status quo? The circumstances had been volatile to say the least, but they were _consistently_ volatile.

When he reached back into his mind, all those years before, to when Papa had been there for them all (before he wasn't), the memories were pleasant. He'd been very content, and very happy, if not a little restless to explore the unknown. But all of his basic needs had been met, and on a fundamental level he was satisfied with the way things were and he'd felt _safe_.

Even back then, danger had been all around them. The smurfs had many enemies and there were many close calls that were had, but all of that usually worked out in the end. Dreamy had felt protected from danger, despite danger's persistence, and he'd never been given much reason to feel otherwise. Nor had just about all the other occupants of the smurf village. That is, before Papa was gone and so many of their fellow smurfs were no longer in their lives.

The years that had followed had not been particularly pleasant, and not just because of the monumental task of coming to terms with the fact that seventeen smurfs were now gone, presumably forever. Dreamy didn't like dwelling on those years very much. As much as there was talk of "swapping stories", as much as the returned smurfs were eager to catch up on what they had missed… Some stories were better left untold. No use digging up some of those dark memories.

Dreamy wasn't very attached to those years. He could do without them. No matter what Hefty said, he'd take the time travel over them any day. Would he trade several of the worst years of his life for seven months of time travelling and an incredible chance to see the world? Unequivocally. The uncertainty about not being able to return and "being constantly on the run" be damned.

"...Off in his daydreams again! Dreamy, Dreamy, Dreamy, when will you learn to keep your head in the conversation and not drifting off into the clouds?"

Dreamy found a smile forming on his face at that. _Wow, I actually missed being lectured by Brainy._ "Sorry, I zoned out for a moment there but I'm listening now."

"I was suggesting that we should all do our best to go easy on Papa Smurf for a while. He's been through a lot of stress, so let's give him a chance to relax" Handy said.

"Yeah, if it wasn't for that wizard that we found-"

"-That _I_ found" Brainy corrected.

Hefty rolled his eyes. "It was just as well that he helped us out. We're really lucky, otherwise we could have all been smurfed. I don't know how much longer Papa could have kept on focusing on the time crystals for."

"Well we're not _that_ lucky. That foolish wizard wasn't supposed to bring us back several years _late._ " Brainy couldn't help stating the obvious once more.

"...Anyway, the point is that Papa Smurf gets all of the rest that he wants and needs. Let's make sure we don't put too much on his plate" Lazy summed up.

"Oh, don't worry, that shouldn't be a problem" Dreamy reassured them all confidently.

* * *

It was true that Papa Smurf had struggled greatly when months had passed and there had still been no sign of getting closer to the correct combination of crystals that would return them all home to the right place and timezone. It was not that the entire experience had been bad – he did have plenty of good memories from the time travels, and more than once the other smurfs had convinced him to take week-long breaks if they had travelled to a particularly nice place. On other occasions, Papa himself would recognise that he was reaching his limits and would take the opportunity to actually enjoy and appreciate the place they had landed in. But all the while, he was desperate to see the rest of his little smurfs again. He missed them, and he missed the village. It was an overwhelming relief to finally be back.

He'd kept trying against the odds, but in the end it was not his own tinkering with the time crystals that had brought them all home, and just as well. The odds of his success had been overwhelmingly slim anyway.

Frankly, after the umpteenth unsuccessful attempt, part of him began to grow terrified that they'd really be lost in time forever. He didn't fancy hopping through different (potentially dangerous) times and places for the rest of his life. When put into context, seven months of it wasn't so bad compared to what could have been. Wasn't bad at all.

He had done his best to hide his mounting despair from the others that had also been caught up in it all. Putting on a positive facade, even when it was difficult. Sometimes it wasn't a facade. Other times, it became all too much at once and the facade would briefly give way to some of the negative emotions that lurked beneath.

 _Would he ha_ _ve_ _ever given up? After, say, they aged fifty years with no results? One hundred? Would he have been able to watch Baby Smurf grow up with no_ _set home? What would that be like? At least all seventeen of them – and Smoogle - would_ _have_ _always ha_ _d_ _each other, when everything else was in flux around them. If Baby Smurf grew up in an environment where his fellow smurfs were his only constant – well, that would become normal for him, perhaps. If they eventually made it back home, maybe Baby wouldn't know how to deal with that. With having a set place to live._ They'd _all_ struggle to readjust if that much time had passed, he supposed.

What if in their travels they'd eventually all found a really good place, an especially wonderful place that they all loved dearly. Some kind of paradise where nothing was trying to hurt them, and they'd still have the freedom to leave at any time if they needed to or – _wanted_ to, and to continue searching for the village. Safety and having a wonderful place to stay, or continue risking it all in the minuscule off-chance of finding their own home again?

None of this mattered now. But multiple possibilities had started plaguing him back towards the end of their journeys. It was over now, thank smurfness.

The hardest image he'd struggled with throughout the constant time travelling, however, had not been the idea that this was all his life would ever be for the rest of his days. He could live with that. No, what had chilled him the most was the thought of his little smurfs back home waiting patiently in the snow for him to come back, for everyone to come back. And none of them coming back.

Of something happening to everyone that had been left behind – some kind of fatal disaster striking the village – and he not being there for them. Unable to help them in any way, unable to prevent it, unable to stop it. He couldn't have lived with that.

* * *

 **A/N: Thanks to everyone who's been supporting this story so far, looking forward to continuing to bring you all some new chapters!**


	6. Chapter 6

Their houses had been largely left alone in their absence. Smurfs like Painter, Vanity, Clumsy and Smurfette found their mushroom houses to be practically the same as they'd left them. If the scatterbrained wizard that had helped them had made a bigger error and thrown off their return by even more years, this would not necessarily be the case. At some point the village would have decided to clean up their houses, clean up their things. It would have just been a matter of when. Smurfette's garden had been tended to faithfully as well – the smurfs had refused to consider letting it wilt away into nothing. It just wouldn't have felt right.

Greedy's kitchen, on the other hand, had been put to some use over the years. Greedy was initially offended to find that his hidden stashes of treats were missing, even though he wouldn't have been able to eat them anyway seeing as they would be years old by this point.

"Don't be silly, we didn't _eat_ them!" Slouchy exclaimed, "-At least, not most of them. You're way too good at hiding things and we didn't even realise where most of your hidden food even was until it was way too late… Now that was _really_ unsmurfy." He made a disgusted face, and Nat nodded grimly in agreement.

"We were able to find the rest of your hidden food… With the help of the bad smells and the bug infestations." Timber informed him flatly.

"Oh, boy." Greedy started looking rather sick at the thought.

"Thanks for that one!" Sweepy added on cheerfully with a laugh, giving him a nudge.

" _Oof_. Guess I didn't think that one through too well..." Although, if Greedy was being honest, he was still sad that he'd come back to find that he didn't have any back-up snacks anymore. Oh, well… that just meant he'd have to make some new ones.

Sassette and Snappy had been in for a surprise when Slouchy and Nat showed them the old mushroom house that they'd all stayed in together. Slouchy and Nat had carefully packed and stored Sassette and Snappy's things away, and their room looked barely recognisable to the returned smurflings. It had been converted from a space for all four of them to just the two smurflings that had remained, and Slouchy and Nat had made a great deal of changes to the space over the years.

"Whimperin' warthogs, where're we supposed to sleep?" asked Sassette.

"I'm not sleepin' on the floor!" Snappy chimed in.

Nat surveyed the room thoughtfully. "Oh, yeah... We'll have to set up some beds for you." It would be hard to make room, but they'd manage.

And as for Papa Smurf… he quickly came to learn that his lab had not remained inactive in his absence.

"I… thought I would try my hand at a bit of magic" Dabbler told him meekly, "...Healing magic. You know, as Doctor Smurf there's only so much I can do without using magic."

"I see, that's quite impressive. You'll have to show me some of what you learned at some point."

* * *

When Papa Smurf walked around his beloved village, he could see some of the differences that stood out amid the overwhelming familiarity of home, differences that had inevitably formed over the years. At an initial glance it was almost like nothing had changed, but you could find those subtle differences that were embedded into the village if you looked more closely. Some things would require adjusting to no doubt, but it was nowhere near the shockingly alien surroundings that he'd been regularly faced with as a result of the time crystals.

He was presently taking the opportunity to have a leisurely stroll and take it all in. He chuckled at how Handy was marvelling at some of the unorthodox ways that the smurfs had attempted to fix the things that had broken down over the past few years. Without Handy there to help, the village had needed to make do in any way they could. The repairs were far from optimal, but it had been better than leaving them broken. The general structural state of their mushroom-shaped houses had also seen better days – it looked like Handy was itching to undo years of damage and unskilled handiwork.

Years.

He didn't know if he could wrap his mind around it.

He wasn't up to date at all. Papa Smurf, for once in his life, didn't know the most pressing needs and concerns that his village currently faced, what developments there had been, what projects might be being worked towards, or _should_ be worked towards.

 _His_ _village? They'd managed to keep it running without him. For some time now, his role as their leader had been rendered obsolete._

But he was glad that the village still stood firm, and that all of his little smurfs were okay.

Nonetheless, it was disconcerting that he needed to rely heavily on others updating him on relevant matters. Every time he made a suggestion, it seemed that it had already been thought of and was already being taken care of.

For the time being he wouldn't let it bother him too much. He needed to take some time to himself.

 _He hadn't been there for them. He hadn't been able to be there for them when they needed him. For several years. They'd all mourned him, grieved over him, and for what? They'd waited fruitlessly out in the snow, the snow had melted away..._

* * *

 _Just under six years earlier..._

"What are you up to, Scaredy?" Nosey finally asked him. Scaredy jumped in shock at the sudden nearby voice addressing him.

Nosey had watched for some time from afar as Scaredy had alternated between pacing back and forth at the very outskirts of the village and gazing off into the forest determinedly. The other smurfs in the village made a point of busying themselves with other matters and pretending they hadn't noticed Scaredy's odd new habits, but in truth he was garnering more than a few curious glances.

"Why are you standing out here all by yourself?" Nosey prompted again.

"...Gargamel" Scaredy whispered.

"What?! Where!" Nosey demanded, but Scaredy shook his head.

"What do you mean? Don't scare me like that!" Nosey exclaimed.

"Have you ever really thought about how many times Gargamel has found the village? Think of all the schemes he's always coming up with to try and capture us. He's probably thinking one up right now. He's probably on his way here right now! We can't afford to just ignore that possibility. Someone needs to be on the lookout!" Remarkably, Scaredy's voice was a bit steadier than it normally was.


	7. Chapter 7

**Note:  
In the "past" = scene is set during the timeframe when the seventeen smurfs were still missing, progressing on from previous flashbacks.  
In the "present" = set after the missing smurfs have returned. The quotation marks are there 'cause time is relative, haha!  
** **Also, I discovered that some people seem to think that Nosey and Reporter are the same smurf; I disagree with that theory for several reasons, and have been writing them as their own separate characters. Now o** **n with the chapter, I hope you enjoy it! Feedback is super appreciated.**

* * *

 _In the "present"…_

"This is so smurfy of you, but you really don't have to go to all this trouble" Smurfette tried to reassure Tailor, but he would hear none of it. He was so happy about everyone's return and was insisting he would do up brand new clothes for all seventeen of them. It had just been so, so long since he'd been able to tend to their clothing. He wanted to do this. The prospect of making a new dress for Smurfette excited him in particular, and the clothes for Sassette, Snappy and Baby's little outfit too – clothing styles he had not made up for more than six years. He would give them new hats, new outfits, new everything, except for a change of the styles themselves, of course.

Their clothes back in their homes were all rather worse for wear and a little moth-eaten, having remained dormant for so many years, but the outfits the smurfs arrived at the village in all seemed to be good as new, courtesy of the time crystals. This was not good enough for Tailor however – in his eyes, everyone needed a new outfit or two after their journeys. It was as if this was his way of rejoicing in their return.

"You should have _seen_ the kinds of things we were _wearing_ in most of the places we went to" Vanity told Tailor as he worked away. Tailor had already heard a little bit about how the time crystals would adjust each of the smurfs' fashion according to each time and place they visited, and didn't really know what to make of this information. At least the smurfs had not had to endure seven months with having taken along just one pair of clothes. He didn't want to imagine how worse for wear they would have been upon their return to the village in that case.

He was a bit curious about what some of the outfits had looked like, and had managed to get a few vague descriptions off of some, but nothing more than that. Maybe he could ask Painter to draw up some of the designs, not that he'd do anything with them – as far as Tailor was concerned, the outfits they already had were perfectly smurfy as they were. It had taken him long enough to adjust to the smurflings' insistence on dressing differently.

Vanity and Smurfette stayed to chat with Tailor for a while longer, and then it was time for dinner.

In Greedy's absence, quite a few members of the smurf village had taken it upon themselves to try and develop their culinary skills a bit. But now that Greedy was back… Everyone was rediscovering just what they'd been missing out on all these years. Many insisted that if he needed any help, they'd be there, but Greedy expelled everyone from the kitchen. It was his domain and he worked his culinary magic with ease. Greedy had missed the kinds of food available back at the village, but he hadn't fully realised just how much he'd missed his kitchen too. If in future the kitchen work ever got to him or became monotonous it was good to know that help was readily available now, but for the time being he was content working alone.

Poet, for his part, still couldn't quite get used to it once more. Greedy serving up food that was indisputably made by him. Baby's presence, babbling away. The presence of all of the formerly missing smurfs, adding their own social dynamics to the simple act of sitting down for dinner. It was familiar, yet _strange_. _So_ strange. It was incredibly surreal. They'd been gone, for good. Yet every mouthful of Greedy's cooking was solid proof that yes, this _was_ real. They were here again. If anything, it was Poet who felt like the time traveller in all of this. It was really as if he'd travelled back to before the time crystals took all of those smurfs away. The _only_ hint that he hadn't just materialised in the past was the discrepancy among the smurflings. A stark reminder of the different amounts of time that had passed for the two different smurf groups. He'd never realised the small ways Nat and Slouchy had grown over the years, and was suddenly confronted with it when looking at how young Sassette and Snappy both looked next to them. It must be very confusing and weird for them too, he realised. The difference among them was relatively small, but still noticeable enough. He supposed they'd all learn to adjust to it as a village, like they'd learned to adjust to things like Natural Smurf becoming Nat Smurfling.

But how could it be that, as they all sat around the table together, the visible difference among the smurflings seemed to be the only remaining physical evidence that such a large chunk of time had passed by? So much had happened. So much had changed, hadn't it? Was sitting around the table all together like this perhaps some kind of pretence that nothing had truly happened? Would the village let all those difficult years vanish into the ether as if they held no substance? He didn't know what to make of this. If you cut out the intervening years, and stitched together the time before the departure of Papa and the others to right now, would it really flow so seamlessly? Nat and Slouchy would be visibly slightly older, and what else? Poet certainly felt transformed by the past few years, but all of these changes were internal. He still lived in the same house, wore the same clothes. Still wrote poems. What did he really have to show for the past few years? What did any of his experiences really mean if they weren't tied down to anything concrete? He wondered how he could come to terms with everything that had happened when his surroundings were just about the same. They seemed to compel him to question their validity – to slip back into life before he ever knew anything of any time crystals. If only there was some way to resolve this dissonance – the incompatibility between what he saw, and what he was experiencing now to what he was feeling, and the nature of the past few years. Maybe it was not the reality of the present moment that he questioned the most, but the reality of those dark intervening years that had passed by – that Papa and all of the others had simply skipped altogether.

So, what _did_ he have to show for the past few years? Poetry, he supposed. It was his poetry that anchored him to those years, a demonstration that he had lived through them, and Papa and the others had not. He decided to go back and review some of those poems after dinner, to reassure himself with the proof that the past few years had really transpired.

* * *

Sassette and Snappy had not exactly moved back into their old room. For all intents and purposes, they had moved into a new one. It looked just about the same on the outside, but once you stepped inside, it was completely disconnected from the old interior that they both remembered. Their stuff had been packed away, but really, it felt no different to arriving at a completely new place with all their posessions ready to be unpacked. They didn't sleep in the same beds that they remembered – new ones needed to be set up. It was very crowded. Slouchy and Nat were both very accommodating, but it was hard to manoeuvre and organise space. Any space that Sassette and Snappy could call their own had to be "claimed back" from Slouchy or Nat.

All four of them truly wanted to just go straight back to the way things were before, but how? It was not just a question of negotiating space. It was not just the fact that Slouchy and Nat were taller now – a constant reminder of how they'd suddenly forked off in different directions, wrenched away from each other's company.

How could Slouchy and Nat just forget the past several years? Sassette and Snappy feared that the other two smurflings had changed. They felt a little intimidated, almost.

Slouchy and Nat had learned and experienced a lot that Snappy and Sassette wouldn't even be able to guess at. The two returned smurflings now seemed so… naive to them both. And they wanted to go back to that time, to being just as wide-eyed, but they just couldn't.

There was an unmistakable gap that had opened up between them and none of them knew how to go about bridging it.

There was talk among Handy, Architect and Papa Smurf of building a new, separate home – splitting up the smurflings' living quarters instead of keeping them all together. Not only was it crowded and Snappy and Slouchy were so accustomed to being the only ones to a home now, but, as the discussions touched upon, Slouchy and Nat would now become teenagers long before Sassette and Snappy.

And it was easy for the others to tell that the smurflings all weren't the same together as they once were.

Split right down the middle – the two smurflings that had remained, and the two smurflings that had time travelled. In many ways, it was a perfect representation of the village at large.

"It's just not fair" Sassette lamented to Poet.

"Yeah! Just 'cause they're a little bit older than us now… It doesn't mean they gotta act all different on us!" Snappy added.

"I'm sure they don't mean to" Poet reassured them. "Everything will simply take some adjusting to. Things would be a lot easier if we could somehow make the past few years just _disappear_ , but alas..."

* * *

"Just around six years. That's all I ask. Doesn't even have to be calculated exactly. We both know that hardly counts for anything in the grand scheme of things, wouldn't you agree? I as a smurf, and you being Father Time… what's six years to the both of us? It's nothing."

"As I said, I can't allow it. It's simply far too risky; there's no telling what could happen."

"But the smurflings-"

"The smurflings' case is the first and only time my clock has ever been used in that manner. There's no guarantee that it would achieve the same effect. Does Papa Smurf know you're here, little smurf?"

Dreamy only gazed at the ground, and so Father Time continued. "Using an unstable de-aging process to erase six years of memories is not exactly something I'd recommend… We still don't even know or fully understand why the smurflings have no memories of their adulthood."

* * *

 _In the "past"…_

"Come on Scaredy, please, just come and sit with us for dinner" Harmony pleaded. Scaredy had been slowly accumulating smurfs that had started standing with him intermittently at the outskirts of the village, and now a pile of wood had joined them with Timber's help.

Miner Smurf walked over, one of many smurfs coming to see what all the fuss was about. "What's smurfing on over here?" he asked Tailor, who was standing nearby in the crowd that was forming.

"Old _Paranoid_ Smurf over there won't even come and eat dinner with us. Says he's working on something to help protect us from Gargamel" came the reply.

"Gargamel!" Tuffy scoffed. "I'm not afraid of any Gargamel! Just let him _try_ and get at us!"

"Forget about Gargamel, he's been trying to get us for so many years," Actor urged Scaredy, "He never succeeds."

"And he never will!" Tuffy added.

Scaredy finally spoke. "He never succeeded when Papa Smurf was here to help stop him."

Silence.

"...Well, isn't Dabbler learning some magic?" asked Miner.

Reporter was next to speak up. "You mean _Doctor Smurf_? He's a beginner. He doesn't know anything about magic! He can't protect us."

"He seems more interested in healing magic anyway" Timber interjected.

"...He's good for helping the sick, but… No good when it comes to fighting" Tuffy found himself saying.

Harmony glared at him "Who's side are you on?!"

Tuffy opened his mouth to reply, but Reporter was already speaking again. "He's just pointing out the obvious! We can't afford to wait for however long it takes for Dabbler to become good at magic. Gargamel could strike at any time."

"Look, Papa's gone away on long trips before and Gargamel was never too much of an issue-"

"It's not _just_ Gargamel" Reporter hissed, "It could be Hogatha, or Chlorohydris or anyone else that has a grudge against us smurfs for whatever reason. This is what Scaredy has been saying, and he has a point! Anyone, or any _thing_. We have to be ready."

"What exactly do any of you plan to do without Papa Smurf's quick thinking in a crisis, like if Gargamel finds us? You can all do what you want, but I know that I'm not going to just wait around for something bad to happen to us!" Tracker sneered.


	8. Chapter 8

Scaredy was driven by his nightmares. It seemed as if every other night, Scaredy bore witness to a village in ruins, ravaged by disaster, some enemy or other having come to get them all. Instead of continuing only to live in fear… The terrible dreams that accosted him had begun to drive him into action. Doing _something_ felt so much better than doing nothing – he'd already spent so long doing nothing.

The more he worked away at his defensive measures with his supporters, the better he felt. The _safer_ he felt. Perhaps there would even come a point where he wasn't so scared of falling asleep anymore.

Some smurfs were dismissive of his concerns. So he told them about his nightmares. He'd pick one out from the many that had woken him up in a cold sweat, and lay it out for them.

" _What if this is just like the Smurfomatic Smurfulator? Isn't it better to be safe… than to be sorry?"_

Scaredy's group continued to draw ire. _"By doing this, you're taking away important time and energy that needs to be spent on other work that the village needs done! In the meantime, all of you are putting the burden on the rest of us to keep this village running!"_ some would argue. Scaredy found such objections to be somewhat disingenuous. What they were doing was mostly only temporary. And as far as he knew, his helpers were getting their fair share of the village work done… and then they were coming right back to his side.

He couldn't bring _himself_ to leave and do the everyday village chores though. His work was much more important – if there was even a chance that something terrible could happen… There's nothing that general upkeep could do to prevent that.

Smurfs like Farmer did not take well to this, who confronted him about it rather irritably. "We're already seventeen smurfs short. We all have to share the work equally, you know! And now you might as well be making it eighteen smurfs' worth of work that everyone else has to cover."

"Eighteen? A-a-a-actually, I don't think B-b-b-b-" Scaredy took a deep breath. It was incredibly hard mentioning any of the missing smurfs, but he wanted Farmer and the others to leave him be. Didn't they realise he was taking measures to _protect everyone_? "I d-don't think Baby did much work around the village." Sassette and Snappy had helped out a little sometimes too, but their contributions had been hardly equal to that of an adult smurf; Farmer's calculations were definitely off.

And even as he was saying those words to Farmer, he realised how flippant they sounded – an unnecessarily pedantic attempt at distracting from the main point that Farmer had been making.

Farmer went very quiet and his expression darkened.

 _Ohh, I shouldn't have said that, I shouldn't have said that_. He was shaking again, he was shaking _so much_. What had he been thinking? Farmer's point still stood regardless of the exact number of lost smurfs whose labour now had to be shouldered. Scaredy had never intended his reply to sound so… dismissive. He pulled his hat down over his eyes as he heard Farmer breathe in deeply. "S-s-s-sorry, Farmer, I-I-I-I…!"

Farmer breathed in, Farmer breathed out. But when he spoke, his voice came out as a low, menacing growl. "For a smurf called "Scaredy"… _You have some nerve_."

And then Farmer was walking away, muttering some choice words angrily to himself.

* * *

Ultimately, despite all of the objections and misgivings, Scaredy's precautions really did save them all.

What had he been saying all along? That it was only a matter of time before some threat was looming over them – before Gargamel found and attacked the village _again_ – but no one really wanted to believe it until Gargamel actually did show up, Scruple and Azrael in tow.

At least for Scaredy, the element of surprise was gone. He'd long been expecting this. The smurfs dived into action.

The rudimentary weapons and defences they'd fashioned for themselves and the village alone kept Gargamel at bay – Scruple was easily deterred and stayed back, ultimately running off, inadvertently taking Azrael with him, as the cat had attached itself to Scruple's back momentarily. From the sound of Scruple's yelp, it seemed that Azrael's claws were digging into him.

Gargamel was more persistent, but even he quickly realised that something was decidedly _different_ about this time. The smurfs had been prepared and ready for him. Gargamel hadn't had a chance to take stock of the situation – to plan and account for this.

They'd warded him off. They actually drove him away once he fully realised that he'd need to go away and plan some more if he wanted to capture them efficiently.

But he'd come far too close to causing them all real harm.

"Don't forget _this_ , Gargamel!" Dabbler cried at the retreating wizard, throwing a small, round-shaped object that smashed against his head like a water balloon. From this, Gargamel sustained no real injury, but when he woke up the next morning there was no way he'd be able to find the village again just from memory. It was a little side-project Dabbler had been working on for a while as he'd poured through Papa's spellbooks.

"Well _done_ , Scaredy!" Tracker beamed. They were all exhausted, worn out from keeping Gargamel back and the stress of the day's events, but no one planned on getting much sleep that night - they needed to remain on high alert lest the hateful wizard try to attack them once more instead of getting the sleep that would allow Dabbler's concoction to take effect.

There was a scattered array of cheers. "Hooray for Scaredy!"

"That magic you worked was rather smurfy too, Dabbler. Let's just hope it – _achoo_ – works!" added Sickly.

"Eheh – you know, the danger's mostly over now, Weepy. You can stop crying" Dabbler said, choosing to brush off the compliment.

"So it really _was_ like the Smurfomatic Smurfulator…!" Weepy stammered out once his breathing eased up a bit.

"Now hold on just a minute!" Actor Smurf stepped forward, "I think we've been over this. The Smurfomatic Smurfulator involved _one_ very specific dream that predicted the future. Scaredy didn't predict this, specifically."

"If you ask me… More coincidence at play here, than anything" added Farmer.

"Coincidence?!" Tracker exclaimed angrily, "Now you listen here you ungrateful-"

"Scaredy really saved us. If it wasn't for him, this village would surely be doomed right now!" Nosey said with a frown, directing his words at all the smurfs who had doubted him.

Scaredy himself started gathering everyone's attention in order to relay his thoughts to them all. He announced that if today was anything to go by, they could _not_ grow complacent. If Scruple hadn't been so startled – if he and Gargamel hadn't been so taken by surprise – they could have gotten the upper hand and then everything would have ended in disaster. That was not to even mention Azrael.

"If anything..." Scaredy's voice was high and tremulous, as always, but his resolve was still clear. "I think we need to redouble our efforts."

The chorus of agreement that rose up was beaten down by the voices of the dissenting smurfs. Flighty Smurf looked about, so many different opinions abounding, not knowing what to think.

 _Hmm. I think maybe Scaredy's right_ , he thought to himself. _But then again…_

"This don't sit right to me" Farmer called out as all of the voices started to die down. "I think you fail t' realise that Gargamel has captured smurfs before and taken em with him. But he's still never once succeeded in any of his awful plans. There's no need for any of this!"

Actor spoke up in agreement. "Farmer's got a point. Plenty of us have been captured, but we always escape, or we're always able to help the others escape. We can certainly make it harder for Gargamel to capture us as we've done, but… there are other ways to stop him or anyone else. We don't need to focus so much on keeping him out of the village if he's already found it..."

"So you're just going to wait until he _does_ find us again?!" Woolly demanded, "Just... _let_ him capture us and _hope_ we're able to escape?!"

"That's _not_ what I'm saying-"

Scaredy raised a hand, and it deeply bothered Harmony how readily everyone went quiet. Scaredy even seemed a little surprised himself.

"Let me smurf you something. I never said that we couldn't also work on other methods for keeping the village safe. Even if Gargamel found the village again, I still smurf that we need to do everything possible to keep him out of it. Having someone like Gargamel in our village poses a danger not just to ourselves. With a single step he could destroy one of our homes, and then what would we smurf? We have enough things to take care of and worry about without having to deal with that too. How well do you really think we could rebuild a house, even with Architect to design it? And there's no saying how much of our village he would damage."

Harmony glared at this smurf who had just addressed them all, who was so well known for being such a panicky coward. How could he speak, with that same soft, high voice, of such matters, and command such serious attention?

Some of the things he had been saying as of late were awfully bold. It was unbecoming of the very same smurf that was still prone to fainting spells and shaking uncontrollably in terror. How did he even muster up the courage to say some of the things he did?

Any goodwill Harmony had felt towards Scaredy in the past had been gradually eroded. _A lot of goodwill felt among the smurfs in general had been falling away, it seemed. Everyone was so quick to anger these days. Arguments were becoming more and more commonplace_. But there was actually some nugget of sense in Scaredy's words, as little as smurfs like Harmony and Farmer wanted to admit that. He didn't really agree with what Scaredy seemed to be proposing, but didn't know what he could say to convince anyone otherwise. The easily-frightened smurf had more than enough smurfs on his side and he didn't think there was much he could say that would change anything.

Nanny was shaking her head unhappily, "The protection of the village has always hinged on the concealment of it, not the… the _arming_ of it!" But she was outnumbered.

"R-Remember what Gargamel said?" Scaredy asked everyone.

 _The decrepit old wizard had looked around, scrutinising them all with a crooked smile, even as he was stuck, unable to take a step further. "So it's true…!" he started cackling wildly. "Your precious Papa Smurf is really gone…? I can't see that miserable red-hatted creature anywhere…! Hahaha, oh, isn't this just – euch - "smurfy", as you pathetic little things would say?" It would take a lot to wipe that evil grin off his face._

"Somehow, Gargamel seems to have found out about our..." Scaredy fidgeted a little. "... _Situation_. He probably thinks that he can take advantage of it. We need to show him that… that we smurfs aren't going to stand for his antics!"

 _And when did Scaredy of all smurfs get so good at making motivational speeches?_

* * *

Thankfully, Gargamel did not return to the village during the night. Scruple must not have been much help in assisting Gargamel in finding the village the next day, either. That, coupled with Dabbler's spell meant that they did not need to face off against him so soon.

The village was safe once again… For now.

For all his strengths, Papa Smurf really had seemed to have left them all completely unequipped to fend for themselves.

* * *

 **Author's Comment: I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who has faved, followed and commented on my fic, I intend to usually reply to every comment I get (so feel free to let me know if you haven't received a response!). I'm really sorry this chapter is so late too, I had some stuff on and also had to fix up/write this chapter as I currently don't have a bunch of chapters written in advance. But I've got some more free time now so I plan to get onto writing the rest of this to continue having a good reserve of chapters, haha. Undecided on when I'll post the next chapter but it should be within a week!**


	9. Chapter 9

Author's Note: This chapter contains vague references to violent/serious injury.

* * *

 _In the "present"…_

Smurfette, Hefty, Painter, Tuffy and Flighty were all out doing some casual smurfberry picking in the forest. After the group had been busying themselves with this for around ten minutes, Flighty motioned the others to come over to him.

"I think I might have heard something, but then aga-" Hefty clamped his hand over Flighty's mouth as some figures emerged from nearby, but still at a rather safe distance. They probably wouldn't have heard Flighty speaking had he been allowed to finish, but it did well to be cautious.

"Eet iz Gargamel," Painter whispered.

"And is that…?" Smurfette rubbed at her eyes, looking at the figure that walked alongside the mean old wizard, "…Scruple?"

"But he's so… different!" Hefty chimed in. Scruple was taller now – rather lanky in fact, and less round in the face. He was also sporting a slightly different outfit compared to the one Hefty remembered. He looked to be taller than Gargamel, although Gargamel's stooped figure greatly helped in that regard.

"Ah, but of course! Scru-pel should be a teenager by now, no?" Painter pointed out.

"Late teens" Flighty confirmed with a mutter, "Now come on, let's get out of here."

"Ah, come on Flighty, they're plenty far away, plenty far!" Tuffy insisted, rapidly picking more smurfberries from the bush they were hiding by, "I just wanna fill up these baskets a little more, or we probably won't hear the end of it from Greedy!" The village had needed to go back to stocking a lot more food now that the others were back – especially Greedy.

"But _Tuffy_ -"

"Give me two minutes tops, you keep an eye on them and tell me if they get too close."

They all knew arguing with Tuffy would be more trouble than it was worth if he was going to be so quick, and the last thing they wanted was for Tuffy to get flustered and inadvertently raise his voice, alerting Gargamel to their presence. At least Azrael could clearly be seen trailing along behind Gargamel and Scruple, so there was no risk of the cat sneaking up on them without warning. A few moments of silence passed, Tuffy rapidly picking away at the berries as the other four trained their eyes on Gargamel, Scruple and Azrael.

Gargamel adjusted the direction he was walking in, although thankfully he was still not walking towards where the smurfs were hiding. The change in position allowed them to get a good view of his other side.

Smurfette gasped softly, and Hefty and Painter's eyes widened. Gargamel's hand and part of his forearm were missing, as well as most of his ear.

"Whaat, what is it?" Tuffy demanded. He looked up at where the old wizard was along with Scruple and Azrael, now gradually moving further away from them. "Well, what is it?" Tuffy asked again irritably.

"Gargamel – his arm" Painter said simply.

"…And ear" Smurfette added.

Flighty immediately turned away with a shudder at their words. The memories of just how it happened, deeply branded into his mind as they were, were flashing back to the fore.

 _There'd been so much blood._

"Couldn't you see it?" Smurfette asked Tuffy as Flighty hugged himself unhappily.

"Uh… Oh-Ohhh, yeah, of course. That." Tuffy was suddenly looking mighty uncomfortable.

"Let's get back to the village." Flighty's voice was barely above a whisper. "Before they come back."

Tuffy and Flighty promptly picked up the baskets of smurfberries and set off back to the village, with Smurfette, Hefty and Painter quickly hurrying after them.

"Hey, wait a – wait!" Hefty pulled Tuffy and Flighty to a stop. "You two want to tell me what that was all about?" There was a slight touch of concern to his voice, as Flighty was looking rather pale.

Tuffy let out a short, nervous laugh. "There's nothing to tell."

"Like smurf there isn't. You two know something about what happened to Gargamel, don't you?"

After a pause, Hefty was going to soften the situation with an added ' _we don't want to pry too much, but…'_ , yet all he managed to say was "We don't want to-" before Tuffy's response came tumbling out hurriedly.

"It was- It was an _accident_ , I swear!"

Painter, Hefty and Smurfette gaped at Tuffy. " _What_?"

"I didn't – we didn't even _do_ anything, really, it wasn't our…!" Tuffy cut himself off, collecting himself.

"Tuffy, what are you talking about?" Smurfette implored worriedly.

Tuffy shook his head, "Ah, it's…" his voice gained more bluster as he continued on, his tough persona flowing back. "It happened a long time ago anyway, so there's no use talking about it already!" He turned away, signalling the end of the discussion.

Painter frowned. "You cannot just…!" he began, but Hefty was already well in control of the situation.

Hefty spoke firmly and with confidence "Oh, no you don't." They all began marching back to the village. "I think you have some explaining to do. Papa Smurf needs to hear about this."

* * *

There were many things in life that Clumsy Smurf didn't understand. This was one fact about life that he understood very clearly. Clumsy didn't mind; he'd gotten through life just fine as it was. He was content, as long as he had his friends and his rock collection.

But he couldn't help feeling that lately, there had been even more things he didn't understand than usual. Life, and the world that he thought he knew well enough, had changed in a myriad of subtle ways.

He could see Dreamy, standing a little bit apart from the smurflings. He looked pensive, almost… sad? That was just one of the many things that Clumsy didn't understand. Why would Dreamy be unhappy? Hadn't everything smurfed out fine in the end? The whole situation was beyond him.

Clumsy began making his way over, almost tripping on the way there.

Dreamy looked up and smiled weakly. "Ah, hi Clumsy."

"Hey Clumsy, we've got some _good_ news!" Snappy informed him emphatically.

Clumsy grinned widely. "Oh gosh, really?"

"Yeah!" Sassette beamed, "We want you and every other smurf to know that we smurflings, we're not gonna let any time, age differences or separate houses keep us apart! Ya better believe that we're gonna have plenty of sleepovers, too!"

"I sure am happy to hear that…!" Clumsy's voice was light and carefree. _Everything smurfs out fine in the end_.

As Clumsy watched the smurflings all talk amongst each other, it did seem like they were managing to work together cohesively as a group again. He hadn't understood why they'd seemed to have had some difficulties, but it looked as if they had done a good job of dealing with them.

Clumsy turned to Dreamy. "There seems to be somethin' on your mind, Dreamy."

"Oh… me? Yeah. I was just thinking about some things. But… I'll be fine." He was looking at the ground rather wistfully as he said this, but then he raised his head to meet Clumsy's eye. "I'm so glad you're back, Clumsy. You and everyone else." _Maybe he couldn't just make certain memories he didn't like disappear at will. But it was okay._ (Or… it _would_ be okay). What mattered was that all of the smurfs were back together again, so he could move on from the past and try to enjoy the present.

" _Papa Smurf_!"

Clumsy and Dreamy turned around. It was Hefty – he had Flighty and Tuffy with him, who both looked uneasy. Smurfette and Painter trailed behind them.

Greedy spotted the recently arrived smurfs and brightened up immensely, going over to them. "Ooh, goody! You've got the smurfberries, now I can-"

"Sorry Greedy, but where's Papa Smurf?" Hefty asked him.

"Uhh, I think he's just in his lab…" Greedy watched the group go off in the direction of the lab, startled.

* * *

"Papa Smurf!"

"Hello – is there something wrong, Hefty?" Papa Smurf turned around as Hefty, Tuffy, Flighty, Smurfette and Painter filed into the room.

Hefty quickly relayed what they'd seen in the forest, and how it seemed that Tuffy and Flighty knew what happened to Gargamel and may possibly be somewhat responsible.

Papa looked at Tuffy and Flighty, who both looked like they just wanted to shrink away. "Great smurfs! Is this true?"

The two of them both started talking over each other rapidly, the others only able to pick up some snatches of what they were saying.

"The _village_ -"

"I wasn't even-"

"You should ask-"

"Not just-"

"Alright, alright" Papa Smurf motioned them to calm down, "so the rest of the village knew about this?"

Tuffy and Flighty nodded.

"In that case, I think it's best to call a village meeting to talk this over. I'll get Harmony to make the announcement."

* * *

The smurfs were all gathered in the meeting hall. Everyone was present, apart from Baby Smurf and the smurflings, as well as Grouchy. Seeing as the topic of the meeting didn't concern them, Grouchy had been chosen to be excused from the meeting in order to watch over them as they played, and also to look after Baby.

Papa Smurf sat at the front to run the meeting. All smurfs who had not been caught in time travel, but had instead remained at the village, sat in a large group facing Papa, while all of the smurfs present who had gone time travelling sat separately, off to the side but also facing Papa Smurf.

Once Papa Smurf signalled that he was ready to begin, they all quietened down.

"This meeting is now in session, thank you everysmurf for coming. This is how today's meeting will work: if you wish to speak, please raise your hand and wait to be called upon. I will also be choosing smurfs at random to call upon to respond to questions, and I also ask that you please stand to speak so that you can be more easily heard by all. With that out of the way, let's begin…" he cleared his throat. "Miner Smurf?"

Miner Smurf stood, awaiting Papa Smurf's question.

"I've heard that Gargamel has had part of his ear and forearm amputated – removed. Can you confirm this?"

A startled ripple went through the room. Miner Smurf appeared to be very caught off-guard by the question. "Uh, yes Papa, I can. It's true."

"And can you tell me whether this has any connection to we smurfs?"

Miner took a moment. "…Yes."

Some of the smurfs from off to the side of the room stirred.

"Miner Smurf, are you able to elaborate on that connection for me?"

"Uhh… May another smurf be called upon, Papa?"

"Very well. Miner Smurf, you may be seated. Timber Smurf?"

Timber stood up rather nervously.

"Do you agree with Miner's assessment?" Papa asked.

"Yes, Papa Smurf."

"Can you please tell us all more about the connection between Gargamel's amputations and the smurfs?"

"Well… They occurred on separate occasions. It's – it's nothing too – it wasn't exactly –" Timber shook his head, clearing his thoughts. "Well, the ear. Gargamel had captured most of us and, he had this _machine_ to use on us. For… yeah, his usual sorts of intentions. We were all desperately trying to save ourselves, we, including smurfs who weren't captured who'd come to help, managed to turn the situation around, it was uh, kind of an _us or him_ situation, I guess?" he grimaced. "And it didn't seem the machine was functioning too well either, making it even more dangerous…"

 _If it hadn't have been for Scruple… Well, it would have been a lot worse. For Gargamel._

Timber didn't mention the part where some of them may have further caused Gargamel to be directly in harm's way that day. It _had_ been a "him or us" situation. And it had given them all the opportunity that they needed to escape safely, one they probably would not have had otherwise.

"I see…" Papa Smurf replied. "And… his arm?" But Timber was clearly finished, so Papa Smurf allowed him to sit back down again before calling on someone else. "…Reporter Smurf?"

Reporter stood.

"Reporter, if you could tell us about Gargamel's arm…?"

"Right. Yes. Erm. First, you have to understand… We had to do everything we could to protect ourselves and the village. We built up village defences. They worked well enough, but… They made Gargamel even more determined, if you can believe it. Kind of turned into a bit of an… escalating war…?" he trailed off awkwardly, uncertainly. "Especially after the whole ear thing… Gargamel was relentless. Then…" he closed his eyes. "he lost his hand, thanks to our village defences."

"Village defences…" Papa murmured. "Reporter, you're mentioning these "village defences" quite a lot. So you are claiming that Gargamel's hand was sliced off in "self defence"…? I'm afraid we may have different definitions of the term."

Reporter straightened, absorbed the comment. "We had to. We had no choice. It's not like we _wanted_ it to happen. But we were helpless and terrified. He was at the village, closing in on us all. It was actually kind of an accident - one of our defences wasn't working properly, but we realised at that moment it could be used to… you know. And that's how we managed to stop him."

"…Thank you for your responses, Reporter. You may now be seated."

Once Reporter took a seat, Papa surveyed the room, his expression unreadable. "It sounds like they were not so much village defences as they were weapons… Not so much focused on protecting as opposed to attacking." Disapproval had slipped into his voice.

Woolly raised his hand; Papa allowed him to stand. He found it very difficult to look up, to look at Papa. "You don't know what it was like, Papa Smurf. We couldn't risk losing any more smurfs. We couldn't." His words hung in the air.

"…So this was the kind of approach taken to any threats towards the village," said Papa at length. He wasn't quite sure he knew what else to say. "None of this has been mentioned when discussing how the village fared in my, Grandpa's and everyone else's absence."

Tailor fielded this question, eyes downcast. "I think I can say that we just wanted to move forward, and not draw attention to what's already done. We don't want to focus on-" he stopped and looked as Farmer abruptly interrupted what he was saying.

"If any smurf's to blame, it's-"

But Papa Smurf swiftly cut Farmer off. "No, you are all responsible. You all share responsibility for this village and how it was run. Farmer, I don't believe you raised your hand to be called upon. In any case, I hope you all understand that there were probably better ways for these kinds of bad situations to be dealt with. As we all heard Reporter state earlier, Gargamel only became more determined in response to aggressive behaviour. Escalating the situation only tends to make things worse."

Tracker's hand shot up, and Papa gestured for him to speak.

"Well actually, Papa Smurf… After the incident with Gargamel's arm, our encounters with him dropped off quite dramatically." There was the ghost of a smile on his face. "He seemed to be much more hesitant to attack us all. We still had to deal with him occasionally, but…" he gave a shrug. "Word happened to spread about what happened to him too, and that it was _our_ fault. Suddenly, a lot of our other enemies, so to speak, started leaving us alone more too."

 _Everyone who wished them harm had all thought that Papa Smurf being gone was the perfect opportunity. They'd swiftly learned otherwise._

 _The smurfs had come to be more formidable in the eyes of their enemies than they ever had been with Papa Smurf's guidance and protection._

Papa Smurf smoothed over his expression, made it blank. "It seems there's much more for all of us to catch up on than I could have even imagined… I think we can continue to discuss this later. I would like to thank all of you once again for coming." And then the village meeting was over.


	10. Chapter 10

"I just don't understand it."

Grandpa listened as Papa mulled over what they had learned today at the meeting aloud.

"Well, we might have learned some less-then-smurfy news today, but the overall takeaway isn't _all_ bad, you know."

Papa looked at Grandpa curiously. "What do you mean…?" _Surely_ he wasn't talking about the fact that most of the smurfs' enemies that had posed a threat to them had now largely been intimidated into leaving them alone?

Grandpa's reply then came as a pleasant surprise to him. "Well don't ya see, Papa? There's no smurf about it anymore after today: _you're_ in charge of this village."

Papa had taken some time to himself, as he'd needed to. But now… Today, even if he hadn't really noticed it consciously at the time, he'd really managed to assert himself as the prime decision-maker and head of the village once more.

Papa, however, wasn't fully convinced, and went to brush off Grandpa's assessment. "Oh, I don't know about _that_. We were gone for an awful long time, and you know how I've been having a couple of difficulties lately when instructing the others, receiving that little bit of pushback…" Here and there, he'd needed to _negotiate_ , as they'd been sustaining the village on their own for so long and had their _own_ ways of going about it that weren't necessarily the same as his. Even today, in the meeting, he had felt some pushback that had never been there before – before the time crystals got involved and messed everything up. How could he assume his position was the same? Even if it might _look_ the same, there's no telling how feelings were under the surface. What if they doubted him now, didn't trust and accept him so readily?

But it was not that the smurfs hadn't wanted Papa to take charge again. Rather, they'd needed some time to transition the duties back over to him, as well as allowing Papa some time to rest. Grandpa wished Papa would realise that, wished he wouldn't doubt himself so much over this. He could see that the transition was just about complete, anyhow. The stage was set, and all Papa needed to do was walk onto it.

So he shook his head with a smile. "This is what every smurf wants. You, leading them, as you've been doing since they were all near-high to a grasshopper. It's plain as day and any old smurf can see it – except you." He let out a brief laugh at the end, causing Papa to smile. Grandpa continued, "I noticed it in the meeting hall today and I'm sure everyone else did too."

Papa Smurf was stepping back into his full role again unopposed. Everysmurf was ready to embrace this return, this reversion to how things _should_ be.

"Well… I suppose you could be right. I do still wish that things wouldn't have smurfed out _this_ way. Just what happened with my little smurfs while we were all gone…?" Papa said the latter part sadly, more to himself than anything else.

* * *

 _In the "past"…_

Scaredy Smurf stood with his arms crossed, looking unimpressed. "F-Flighty."

Flighty smiled nervously. "Hey, Scaredy…" For all intents and purposes, Scaredy was _not_ an intimidating smurf, but he didn't need to _sound_ and _look_ intimidating these days for everyone to be aware that he was not one to be smurfed at.

Flighty soon found his mind wandering. When was the last time Scaredy had gotten a good night's sleep? The bags under his eyes were-

Scaredy cut into his thoughts. "Do you know why I smurfed you out to speak with you today?" He gave a pause for Flighty to answer, but Flighty seemed to want him to continue, so he did. "When asked, you keep saying that _maybe_ you want to help out, so then we include you and give you tasks to smurf, a-and then all of a sudden you change your mind! Y-you can't just keep abandoning duties when you're assigned them."

"Ah… Sorry Scaredy. I'll think it over."

Scaredy threw up his hands in exasperation. "You've had plenty of time to think it over! You either want to help out or you don't. But f-fine. This is the last time…"

Scaredy left him to his own devices as Flighty tried to figure out what _was_ it that he wanted to do.

It was not long before he was approached once more, but this time not by Scaredy. Rather, by some of Scaredy's close supporters.

"Why can't you just commit to something just this once, Flighty? You don't want to waste everysmurf's time, your own included."

"Just… pick a side."

"Yeah, pick a side and smurf it over with so that we can know what side you're smurfing on."

"Uh, umm" Flighty wasn't sure what to say. "I don't mean to waste anyone's time…"

"The solution is simple, then: help work to smurf the village safe, with us. We could really smurf you on our side, Flighty!"

"Well I just think… maybe I'll smurf in the middle? I-"

"You _can't_ smurf in the middle, Flighty, that's what we're saying. You either choose to help us protect the village or you don't. And if you're not doing anything to help, you might as well not be supporting us at all."

Flighty was concerned that in such a situation as this where abstaining from a decision would fail to make anyone happy, he may just have to resign himself to leaving everyone unsatisfied.

* * *

Scaredy made his way through the smurf village. It was late morning. Everyone appeared to be busying themselves with something, except he could see the smurflings standing around a little idly. He decided to approach them.

"H-hello." He gave a little wave. "What are you two up to today?"

"Hi Scaredy. Actually, we were just trying to figure that out for ourselves, but I'm sure we'll think up something fun" Nat responded.

Scaredy hummed thoughtfully. "You know… I've an idea. What about if you helped out a little for our little village side-project? It could be fun, and I think you'd both be really wonderful additions to our team. I have a couple of small tasks that I think-"

"HEY!"

A jolt went through Scaredy at Tailor's sudden shout. He turned to see him staring at him angrily. Stepped back in alarm as Tailor continued.

"You – You! _Don't_ drag the smurflings into your nonsense! Don't even try!"

Scaredy held up his hands defensively. He couldn't help the slight shake to them, but with great effort he was able to largely maintain his calm and respond. "I wa- I was j-just _asking_ them, Tailor. Offering. Wasn't "dragging" them into anything! There's n-no need to be so upset!"

"I don't care. Leave them alone. Let them do what they wish instead of trying to take them away from their games and do things for you."

"Do things for _me_? You think I – you think all of this is just for me? It's for the whole village. E-Even for the smurfs who don't c-care, and don't want to help out! It wasn't like Nat and Slouchy had anything planned, I wasn't trying to disrupt their day, I was only-"

" _Scaredy_. Step away and leave the smurflings be. Don't try to co-opt them into your little "village defense" club again."

Scaredy's "little" club had more smurfs that were part of it as opposed to smurfs that were not. Maybe in the past it could have been called "little", but things had certainly changed when Gargamel had tried to attack the village just as Scaredy had been fearing all along, proving him right to have been so worried about Gargamel showing up. Suddenly, a lot of smurfs who had scoffed at him before had been a lot more interested in learning about how they could help guard against future threats.

By this point, many smurfs were observing and listening to Scaredy and Tailor's exchange.

"Y-you know, I think you're r-r-right about what you s-said before: 'Let them do what they wish'. Why don't you let the smurflings _themselves_ decide? I-instead of deciding _for_ them!"

"Don't you know when to _quit_?!" Tailor snarled. He went to leap at Scaredy but was held back by some other smurfs. Scaredy had tripped over himself in his attempt to move back, and was now sitting firmly on the ground, Tailor looking down at him from above.

Slouchy spoke, reminding everyone of his and Nat's presence. "Tailor. It's fine. We're just going to go off and play on our own, okay?"

Tailor continued on, still looking at Scaredy. "I won't let you… won't let them get taken in by your paranoid antics because they're _smurflings_. They're smurflings."

"It's fine, Tailor." Slouchy reiterated flatly, "Don't worry about it."

Smurfs were also urging Scaredy to just drop it, to leave it alone, but he had a faraway look as he sat there and likely didn't hear them. One that Dreamy, from the crowd, somehow felt that he, too, was familiar with. In that moment, he just looked so tired.

Scaredy spoke softly. "Yeah. They're smurflings. But maybe you need to give them more credit. We've all had to do a lot of growing up ever since… Ever since…" his eyes came back into focus then. His words had not meant to inflame, but that was the effect they'd had on Tailor, who was struggling against the smurfs keeping him away from Scaredy, trying to take him further away.

"You're a coward. You'd have _children_ do your bidding."

Scaredy frowned. "That's not-" he protested, but Tailor's words continued to steamroll over his.

"Don't you think we've all gone through – are _going_ through enough, without you adding even more on top of it all? Especially the smurflings. Why would you-"

"Please, stop _fighting_!" Nat wailed.

His words, abruptly piercing through the air. It was finally enough to get Scaredy and Tailor to leave it alone, to leave the conversation. Everyone then started picking the day back up again and continuing on with it. Slouchy and Nat went off and tried to come up with a game to play. They did not follow after and join Scaredy, just as Slouchy had told Tailor they wouldn't.

* * *

Dabbler appraised the smurfs sitting before him disapprovingly. "What were you thinking…?"

Neither Harmony nor Tuffy replied as they allowed Dabbler to fuss over them, Tuffy being the more reluctant of the two to have any of his wounds looked at.

"You know" Dabbler continued, shaking his head, "I'm busy enough as it is, without…"

Tuffy crossed his arms stubbornly. "Then stop wasting your time and just go and do the other things you need to do instead. _You're_ the one who insisted on looking us over, when it's gotta be nothing but a coupl'a small bruises, that's all. Nothing we can't just walk off."

Dabbler put his hands on his hips crossly. "Of course I'm going to insist. Any smurf gets hurt, I take care of it. That's how it is. I wouldn't be any sort of Doctor Smurf otherwise. Maybe _you_ should have refrained from lashing out at each other."

"We barely touched each other, there's hardly anything to check over."

"You're still not getting it, are you? You're still trying to minimise this. This village has enough going on. I'm here for the smurfs that get sick, injured accidentally, or the smurfs that get hurt by any of those who are actively trying to hurt us. And _now_ I have to worry about smurfs hurting _each other_?!"

Harmony and Tuffy cast their eyes off to the two opposite sides of the room, not looking at Dabbler or each other.

"Now I don't _care_ if you might disagree on something like Scaredy's ideas. Why don't you act like smurfs about it instead of… whatever this is. I don't want to see any of you back in here again from hurting one another." Dabbler then let out an exasperated, pent-up sigh. His healing abilities were being tested much sooner, and more frequently than he would have liked. Yeah, now that he had decided to take on this responsibility fate seemed to want to readily send patients his way. It was just as well he had chosen to try and train himself up. And now… this. He had not anticipated violence in the village to ever be an issue. And by all accounts, he was going to do everything in his power to ensure it _wouldn't_ become an issue.

The village was becoming more and more at risk of simply smurfing into pieces at this rate.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Hi, everyone! After posting the previous chapter of this fic, I have since landed a full-time job! That's the main reason why this chapter is so late. Updates will be slower from now on, but I still aim to update every 2-3 weeks! (It may be longer than that though, we'll see!) I don't think I'll be able to adhere to once-a-week updates anymore thanks to my new job, sadly. Thanks for sticking with me so far - and I hope you'll continue to stick it out with me for the rest of this fic and into the sequel I have planned! (yes, you read that right). I appreciate you all.


	11. Chapter 11

Scaredy was a busy smurf, but he still paused to allow Nanny to address him nonetheless. Who knew? Maybe she was actually seeking to see him about something different this time.

"Scaredy. I've come to ask you once more – let's focus on concealing the village, and keeping it hidden, instead of your… current projects."

No, still the same kind of request, it seemed. "N-Nanny… I appreciate your suggestion. But there's nothing stopping you from taking up those measures to ensure that the village continues to remain hidden. In fact, I encourage you to. As I've said before, however, even with the village kept out of sight, there are ways that it can be found. And when it is found again, as it surely will be, we have to make sure that everyone in this village can be kept safe."

Nanny looked rather defeated. They'd run through similar conversations a few times before, after all. "Are you really going to continue to ignore the way things have been done throughout smurf history?"

As always these days, the words seemed to come to Scaredy so readily – a response ever at hand. "We smurfs need to be able to make decisions for _ourselves_ , in the here and now, in order to move forward i-into the future. We shouldn't automatically follow the smurfs that came before us – what was best for them is not necessarily best for us and our village in the present."

"…And you think _you_ know what's best for the village then, I suppose?" Nanny eyed Scaredy warily. At last, he appeared to be taken off-guard, at least momentarily, by the comment.

"N-Nn. All I'm saying is that we shouldn't rely so much on the past when circumstances are always changing. I don't claim to know what's best… I'm just trying my best to smurf the village safe any way I can."

Nanny turned away. _And who smurfed you in charge?_ "Thanks for speaking with me again, Scaredy." She then took her leave of him.

* * *

 _In the "present"…_

Grandpa found and approached Nanny after the rather grim village meeting at the first opportunity he got. He stayed to listen to what Papa Smurf had to say, but when he caught sight of Nanny he went over to her.

"So" Grandpa began, falling into step beside Nanny. She was apparently in the midst of completing some errand or other, but did not appear to mind Grandpa's presence. "Pretty unsmurfy news in the village meeting today."

"Yeah." Nanny agreed sombrely. "I don't think the last few years have been very… smurfy."

"So why…" Grandpa did his best to keep his voice measured. "Why didn't you stop them?" _Why didn't you do anything to prevent things from turning out as they did?_

Nanny stopped and looked at him seriously.

" _This isn't right! This isn't how it should be." None of them had ever seen Nanny get so upset before._

" _Says who?! Just because you're older than us doesn't mean you have any authority over us!"_

"…You think I didn't try?"

She let the words settle in, then continued walking. "They wouldn't listen to me. You know, I'm an old lady and, besides. I'm only a pretty recent addition to this village relatively speaking anyway. Even moreso than you."

"Well that shouldn't mean anything" Grandpa protested, "You're still a smurf like any other - an equal member of this village."

"Of course. And it _shouldn't_ mean anything, but it does. Can't really be helped – I just happen to not be a smurf they grew up with, not a smurf that they have known for as long as they remember. And a lot of the time it's not even intentional…"

Grandpa sighed. "Guess I understand. 'Course, you didn't _choose_ to be in Castle Captor for five hundred years… It ought to go without saying that your voice is just important as anyone else's."

"It's not such a big deal, so there's no need to worry. I am listened to and treated with respect, it was just, sometimes some differences slipped through – which is only to be expected. You wouldn't treat a smurf you've known your whole life exactly the same as a smurf you just met a few years ago. It's just that sometimes, it does things like stand in the way of my being able to really do much of anything about what happened."

"Makes me wonder if I'd have been able to make any difference."

Nanny shrugged. "Well, there's no real way of telling. But I guess, maybe we all have a tendency to overestimate how much difference we really could have made in how a lot of events turn out."

* * *

"Ya _hurt_ Pappy Gargamel?! But… But how?!" Sassette sounded so distraught.

"Well" Nat began haltingly, "Most of the smurfs in the village created this really big mechanism which-"

"That's _not_ what I meant!" Sassette snapped, holding back tears. "I meant, how could you! How could anyone…?" she glanced sidelong at Slouchy and Nat accusingly. "You _didn't_ do anything to hurt him, did you?"

Nat and Slouchy both gave her a horrified look.

"Of course not!"

"It was only most of the grown-ups who were involved in that stuff."

Sassette wasn't supposed to find out about the topic of the village meeting, but it was hard for her _not_ to when just about every smurf was talking about it. What had been the point of leaving the smurflings out of the meeting if the adult smurfs so carelessly failed to prevent word of its contents from reaching the now deeply-hurt Sassette?

Sassette sniffled, causing Snappy to nudge Nat and Slouchy urgently. "Say something!" he hissed at them, "Hurry! We gotta try and make her feel better, at least a little bit!"

"It uh… happened very fast. It was quick and not drawn-out-"

Sassette started crying and Snappy swiftly gave Slouchy's arm a punch, signifying him to stop. "Ugh, you're hopeless! You listen to me Sassette. It's not all bad. Gargamel is just fine right now, right?"

"Uh, well, yeah. He's still the same old Gargamel living his life, I guess…" Nat replied.

Slouchy could see what they were getting at. "Yeah. He's had to adjust a few things but he seems to have adapted to having one hand pretty well. You don't need to worry about him too much."

Snappy nodded. "See, Sassette? Now stop bein' so miserable already. I don't think Gargamel deserved what happened to him… But he's still a bad person and he doesn't deserve your concern or your tears either."

Sassette looked up at Snappy. "Worryin' weasels! If I'm not feelin' any concern for him, then who will? He's not all bad, I won't believe that, and as for all the smurfs that helped hurt him… I hope they at least feel a little bad about what they've done!"

The other three smurflings sighed internally. Sassette had such a big and caring heart… Her trust in Gargamel was so misguided, misplaced. But she never had listened to anyone who tried to tell her otherwise.

 _And to think, we smurflings were kept out of the meeting and weren't supposed to be involved! Now we're the ones helping to clean up after the grown-ups who just can't keep their mouths shut!_ Snappy thought to himself.

Slouchy and Nat's thoughts largely concurred with his, although they also asked an additional question: _Why bother separating and keeping us out of it anyway, if we were there and already know full well what happened?_

* * *

"Such a smurfy morning! Wouldn't you say, Dreamy?" Papa asked cheerfully as he, Dreamy and Dabbler all walked through the forest together.

"Ah, I guess, Papa Smurf" Dreamy offered, trying to sound enthusiastic. Some smurfs like Papa and Dabbler had noticed Dreamy's rather apathetic disposition as of late, and now they seemed determined to make him feel better. It was the whole reason he'd been invited to come along with them into the forest as they collected potion ingredients, after all.

Dabbler still had a lot to learn when it came to the world of healing and magic, and Papa was more than happy to share his knowledge. In that sense, Dreamy couldn't help but take note of the fact that his presence with them was totally unnecessary. Although, he supposed, there was no overt harm in tagging along if it would make them happy.

Things had been relatively uneventful in the village for the past few weeks. The unrest following the village meeting had calmed down, and with Papa carefully overseeing everything, everyone was able to breathe easily again, almost like old times.

As always, Dreamy was getting lost in his thoughts once more when he was brought sharply back into the present moment, colliding with Papa's outstretched arm keeping him back. Papa and Dabbler had stopped walking. Gargamel was right up ahead – uncomfortably close, but thankfully he had not yet caught sight of them.

"It's Gargamel!" Dabbler blurted out, stating the obvious a little too loudly. Gargamel spun around.

"Thank you, Dabbler" Papa sighed.

 _You'd think all those years Scaredy spent trying to drill caution into us all would have made Dabbler a little more careful in front of Gargamel, but no_ , Dreamy thought to himself. Then again, Dabbler always had been one to stay firmly away from Scaredy's endeavours.


	12. The Rise and Fall of Scaredy Smurf

The Rise and Fall of Scaredy Smurf

* * *

 _In the "past"…_

 _The nightmares were fading. Soon they would be gone._

* * *

When they fight, they fight over _him_.

It wasn't like he wasn't doing anything wrong. Yet the same few smurfs remained staunchly opposed to him despite the enhanced protection of the village they were able to enjoy, thanks to him.

There was something about having smurfs argue so passionately over _your_ ideas.

Everything he said _mattered_ , and every smurf listened to him whether they supported what he was saying or not. Because he had influence.

In spite of everything, he was still the same Scaredy Smurf, and whenever things tended to get intense between smurfs in the village, he was nowhere to be seen. There'd be arguments over _him_ and _his_ ideas, and he would slink away and hide. Sometimes peeking out tentatively from the shadows, always shaking.

But having a well-established group of supporters was not without its perks, he had to admit.

Perhaps… perhaps he was not entirely still the same Scaredy Smurf. He was getting _better_. Yes, he still much preferred to stay far away from conflict if he could help it. But if ever faced with one of the smurfs who couldn't see how much disaster he was helping to steer the village clear from, the presence of his supportive group could give him the strength and resolve he needed to stand firm.

When he was shaking… it wasn't always out of fear these days.

But above all this, there was one important thing that stood out to Scaredy: his nightmares were finally fading. And for the first time in a long time, he was feeling… relief. He could… relax a little more.

He wasn't scared of falling asleep anymore, didn't dread lying down in his bed to close his eyes, wasn't fearful of what visions were awaiting him.

He had promised the smurfs a safer village, and enemies who would be deterred – and he had delivered.

But they were still feeling lost. They all were, Scaredy no less so. Given everything, all the smurfs that were gone, the village without a leader, how could they not be? Yet somehow, he was the one being projected onto by the others – propelled onto a platform not entirely of his own choosing, and when it came to making decisions…

Scaredy had set out to do one thing only: to prevent his nightmares from becoming a reality, avoid disaster, protect the village from the outside world. And it was a goal that captured the minds and imaginations of most of the village, swept up in it all, Scaredy's single-minded fixation on it enveloping them too. It gave everyone something else to focus on, an end point to work towards, instead of dwelling…

His fellow smurfs leaned on him, and Scaredy put much of his ideas into practice. Then they leaned on him some more.

Did he notice the way that they'd been looking at him lately? His supporters, they stacked the pedestal beneath Scaredy's feet ever higher, and it wobbled precariously, perilously.

And just like the pedestal they beheld, the smurfs at the base propping it up, too, could easily splinter.

Uniting around a common cause is a temporary fix. It alone cannot sustain a stable society.

There were the few smurfs who disagreed with Scaredy's ways, and they were often unpopular because of it. But this did not mean that everyone rallying behind Scaredy lived in complete harmony.

While still working through loss, grief, trying to function, and emerging from those dark places, it was not possible to always be about smiles and cheer and to keep up standard smurfy, friendly ways. Patience regularly ran short, smurfs sometimes reached to inject more goodness into their attitudes and found none, all their energy having been invested elsewhere, needing more time for it to replenish.

Everyone could see it, could sense the fragility of their very existence and way of life, threatening to disintegrate under the stress, the lack of goodwill continuing to bind them. They needed to all work together more than ever, but under the circumstances it wasn't so easy. Was there a way to make things better?

Things _could_ be better than this. They used to be better than this.

* * *

It happened in the middle of a conversation. Scaredy had just given some of his helpers instructions – business as usual.

"Scaredy, you always seem to know what to do, or have an idea… You're decisive when it really matters." After delivering this praise, Timber continued on casually. "The others and I have been talking. We think you could make a good leader. You know… of the village."

"Wh-what! M-m-m-m-me?!" Scaredy was so stunned he could barely get the words out. "N-no, I-I could n-n-n-never…!" There was no way! He was quite happy with staying firmly out of that role, thank-you-very-much. It was hard enough receiving the amount of attention and sometimes scrutiny he currently did – he didn't want to be pushed even further into the spotlight. Leader? He couldn't imagine the amount of pressure that would involve – it was unfathomable. Definitely not.

"No need to be modest-"

"No, _really_ , I- no."

"Oh, come on. You're already the main smurf who smurfs decisions. And just look at how you've been able to organise smurfs so far. You're practically already the leader."

"For village defences, sure! But being responsible for everything in the village?" Scaredy shook his head, teeth chattering at the very thought.

"I think you could pick up the role well enough. Have a little faith in yourself – like we do!" Reporter prodded him.

Scaredy didn't reply, only shook his head vehemently. The smurfs gathered around him stared at him imploringly. Desperately. _What was the meaning of this_?

Tracker sighed from within the group when still no response was forthcoming, his expression completely serious. "Scaredy, we – _need_ – someone. We need someone. We can't keep going on like this forever. Living out this limbo – it's too much. The constant balancing acts… It's not how things are supposed to be. It's not how things – were. And you… You're the one we've been looking up to all this time, looking to for instruction. So who better to lead us?"

"Like Timber said earlier, you're practically already the leader. It would just be making it official. We need someone like you to guide us, to smurf the decisions, to help keep us on track and working together and smurfy…!"

Scaredy grimaced, closing his eyes and trying to ignore the desperation he could hear in Reporter's voice.

"A-and being an _official_ leader makes it a lot easier to manage those things. The village would run so much smoother, you know?" Reporter finished, calming his voice down somewhat so that it was less high-strung.

"Y-You _know_ that I-" Scaredy fought hard to keep his eyes dry, his voice strained. " _No one_ could ever compare t-to Papa! Not me! You can't expect me to-"

Immediately, they realised what Scaredy was saying, and suddenly expressions were very sombre and they were all rushing to reassure him.

"No, no, no, of course not! No, Scaredy, we didn't mean like that!"

A few moments of many smurfs talking at once, all similar words and reassuring him.

Timber reiterated what they'd meant once the voices of the others died down. "Of course we know that no one could ever be just like Papa Smurf was. We would never ask for, or expect anything like that! I'm really sorry if that's what it sounded like. Each leader is different and has their own style. We're saying it would be a lot better for the village if we had _a_ leader, and we think you're the best smurf for the job. We're just asking you to be _you_ to lead us."

Scaredy lapsed into silence, mulling it all over. The best smurf for the job? Somehow he doubted that. And yet, that's what the smurfs before him were claiming. He didn't know how he could smurf that level of pressure. But if it would be good for the village… And really, if they needed this…

"Scaredy Smurf, leader of the smurf village… Scaredy Smurf, leader of the smurf village…" he tested out the words softly to himself. They sounded absurd. Maybe the others could all finally start calling him by a different name. Or maybe he could get used to it.

…He was getting ahead of himself.

"I'll…" he looked away. "I'll think about it" he said, and the others all beamed.

* * *

The more Scaredy thought about it, the more it dawned on him what really appeared to be going on.

" _We need someone like you to guide us, to smurf the decisions, to help keep us on track and working together and smurfy…!"_

It wasn't about how good of a leader Scaredy could be. They were simply yearning for someone who could step in and just make decisions for them so that they didn't have to think about or stress over them. Since being left without a well-defined authority figure, decisions and plans needed to be made as a village and it was much more burdensome. With all their suffering and bickering and lack of experience, sometimes hardly anything got done as a result. It was often exhausting and time-consuming and merely amounted to more things to deal with on top of everything else.

Whatever Scaredy said in such situations, his supporters would all usually start agreeing with him until that was what was decided upon, and that's a key reason why he held such sway in the village. _They've already been doing it_ , Scaredy realised. _They've already been signing off and allowing me to do their thinking for them, to save them the trouble_. Now they just wanted to make it more official and all-encompassing. Sometimes Scaredy didn't have an opinion or anything to contribute on a particular issue and the others needed to hash it out – as the leader he wouldn't have much choice.

Old habits smurf hard, and they wanted to return to – wanted to stick to what was more familiar to them. In this case, it was having a leader who would take care of mostly everything. It was true that they didn't expect anyone who could compare to Papa Smurf. They knew that wasn't possible. But what they _did_ want to fall back on, to cling to for solace and something to help get them through, was a leader to look up to.

Scaredy would become – already _was_ – a symbol. Permission for them to relax and just focus on their own individual lives and tasks. A symbol that would allow them to feel safer.

It just so happened that Scaredy, starting all that time ago, had had strong opinions about protecting the village and how to go about it. He'd been determined and outspoken on the matter, and what smurfs saw was someone decisive and taking action. But it wasn't _really_ about him specifically, was it? It's just how things turned out. It could easily be some other smurf in his place right now. They would have just found someone else to latch onto.

Following the proposal that Scaredy become leader, his followers treated him better than ever and showered him with encouragement. He was all smiles to them, politely saying he was still thinking it over. And when he wasn't there with them, he could see how they watched him and eagerly talked among themselves. It looked like they all really thought he was going to agree and take them up on their offer.

And he supposed he was tempted.

He'd be lying if he said he didn't enjoy the amount of influence he had, the way everyone would listen to him. And sometimes, he'd gotten too carried away… Times where he smurfed too close to the sun.

But these days he was sleeping so much better, no longer hindered by nightmares, finally free. He enjoyed his current status, and he didn't need more. He'd be smurfing off more than he could chew.

And there was something a little off about it all, too. They were deluding themselves if they thought making him their leader would make all their problems go away. But he did recognise what they were saying and that they couldn't go on like this as a village forever. They didn't need to make him their leader to fix things, though. There were better ways. Now that he was more well-rested and with a clearer mind, no longer needing to focus so much on fending off enemies now that a formidable reputation had been established for the village, he could start using his influence in different ways to make life _within_ the village better. He didn't need to be leader to do that. He could work towards solving the other issues that faced them.

Yes, he had made up his mind, he was going to go and let all his followers know his decision right now not to become a leader of any kind. They may be disappointed, but they'd soon learn it was for the best.

A smile lighting up his features, humming the smurf song, he confidently walked out his front door –

-and ran straight into Farmer, Tailor and Harmony. He'd been soaring, truly soaring, but now it was time to plummet.

"Hello, Scaredy" Farmer said coldly. Scaredy was backed into his home, his front door slamming shut. Scaredy instantly started freezing up at the death stares they were all giving him.

"Who do you smurf you are?" Harmony spat.

Scaredy stared back, eyes wide, speechless.

" _Who do you smurf you are_?!"

"Wh- a-"

"Who the _smurf_ do you think you are?! Think you're Papa Smurf? Think you're better than Papa Smurf, huh?"

"Nn-No…!"

"So how does it feel, thinking you're better than all of us? Above us all? What's it like?" Tailor murmured.

"I-I don't- unders-stand-"

Tailor's voice instantly grew harsher. "Don't play dumb. We overheard from the others what you've been planning. Word is the smurfs are going to have a new leader, hmm? Isn't that right?"

"We happened to hear about your nasty little scheme! Got everysmurf wrapped around your smurfy little blue finger, don't you?" Farmer paused and they all continued to glare.

"Didn't realise you wanted to increase the stranglehold you already have over this village. The control you already have… wasn't even enough for you without you plotting for a full takeover. I've got to say, I'm… surprised. I've known you my whole life and, I didn't think my opinion of you could sink lower than it already had." Farmer and Harmony nodded in agreement at Tailor's words.

"No… no, you've – got it – wrong" Scaredy forced out the words, no choice but to lean against the back of his chair for support. His breathing was starting to feel very constricted, being cornered like this.

"Got it wrong?" Harmony stepped closer. "Don't insult me" he hissed.

"I n-never-"

"Shut up. You've been talking nonsense for so long, now you're going to listen."

Scaredy cast his eyes about weakly. Why hadn't anysmurf taken notice and come to see what was going on? Without his followers by his side to make him feel strong, he could barely stand. He would try calling for help, but frozen in place as he was, he doubted he could make his voice loud enough. "W-Where-"

"…is everyone?" Tailor laughed bitterly. "Always talking so big when you're not alone. But we're not stupid. We know you'd just have us _hauled_ _off_ or something if your supporters were here. But the others, including the cult of Scaredy, are off playing smurfball right now."

Harmony again. "So tell us, when did you decide that you're _better_ than Papa Smurf? What was it that made you completely abandon your sense of decency and respect, made you think you could just play around at taking his place?"

"I didn't-"

"How dare you even think you're anything close to the great smurf he was."

Farmer spoke up. "Yeah, I'm sure you'd make a _great_ leader, Scaredy" with a great kick, a nearby table went crashing to the ground, its contents scattering everywhere. "How much time would it be before we'd start launching attacks pre-emptively in the name of "defence" and "protection" for the village?"

He stepped closer. "Thanks for being SUCH a role model for Slouchy and Nat, too, by the way! Glad they haven't smurfed out anything like _you_ so far. But I'm sure you'd want to change that, huh?"

"Please…" Scaredy whimpered, sliding down the back of his chair weakly to the floor.

"Yes, because you're _so_ merciful" Farmer snarled. He reached out above Scaredy and grabbed hold of the chair, Scaredy flinching at the motion. "Remember when…"

" _What the hell did you do?" Dabbler yelled, "What the_ hell _did you do now? He's just a kid, for smurf's sake! Scruple, I'm so sorry, I'll fix you up."_

"… when Scruple got hurt? Remember how much he cried?"

"That was a mistake!" Scaredy said immediately, somehow briefly finding his voice again. "A-a-a-and I've already said as much…! He got in the way at the last second, i-it was G-Gargamel that was s-supposed-"

The chair now, toppling over with a heavy thud from behind Scaredy. Scaredy sat, cowering.

"We wonder about that. Wonder how many more mistakes you plan on making. Well, we're not going to wait around and see."

 _He only speaks the language of fear_ , Farmer thought to himself. _It's the only way to stop him from dragging Smurf Village down even further into darkness_.

"We're not going to risk it. We're never going to give you the chance to make more "mistakes" again. So I suggest you keep to yourself from now on… or we WILL be back to chat with you again."

 _He's used the same fear that controls him to infect and control others. We'll use fear to control_ _him_ _, make him stop_.

His front door opening, then slamming shut. The only real indication they had left, as Scaredy's eyes were shut tight. He curled up there on the ground, the possessions from his table still strewn about the room.

He'd guarded so strongly against outside threats and enemies. He'd been so afraid of just about anyone and any _thing_ outside the village… He hadn't realised he also needed to guard himself against, and fear his fellow smurfs.


	13. Chapter 13

_In the "present"..._

"Smurfs!" Gargamel exclaimed.

Papa and Dabbler quickly dived back into the bushes from which they had just emerged. Dreamy remained, standing alone in the open, right in Gargamel's line of sight.

"Dreamy!" Dabbler hissed. Dreamy was motionless.

"I thought I saw..." Gargamel shook his head in confusion, then turned his eyes to Dreamy. "Well, what do you want? I know there were more of you pests just now!"

As it turned out, Dreamy having been left out in the open was currently the least of their worries. It was only at the last moment that Papa Smurf sensed a presence behind him and dived out of the way as Dabbler, not so fortunate, was swept forward with a swipe of Azrael's paw. He landed outside of the bushes, a little ahead of where Dreamy stood – closer to Gargamel.

Papa hit the ground hard, spraining his ankle in the process.

Azrael triumphantly strolled forward, the smug cat leaving the two stranded smurfs the option of either allowing Asrael to come closer to them or to move towards Gargamel... Dreamy and Dabbler tensed.

"Not today, Azrael" Gargamel grumbled. "Today I don't want to have to deal with those pesky blue beasts. Come along!"

Azrael meowed insistently in complaint as Gargamel began to walk away. _Away_ from them. Azrael was then casting a confused glance at the smurfs and making one last swipe at them before hurrying after Gargamel. Dreamy and Dabbler barely managed to dodge the half-hearted strike, Dabbler still clutching the deep scratches already embedded in his side thanks to his previous encounter with Azrael's claws.

Gargamel didn't seem to be paying much attention to his surroundings, and that's when they saw it – they noticed how the ground stopped abruptly up ahead. He was heading right towards where the ground dropped off sharply.

"Gargamel!" Dabbler called, following after him. "Watch out!"

Gargamel looked back coldly, quickening his pace to hasten away from Dabbler. "And just what do you _think_ I'm doing, you little blue vermin? I'm getting myself away from you."

"Wait, stop, there's...!"

"Can't you just leave me in peace?" The old wizard didn't know it, but he was playing with danger, walking by the edge of a swift fall as he currently was, and he was about to lose. He took another step forward, but found nothing beneath his feet.

He went forward at an angle. Managed to somehow grasp onto the edge with his one good hand after a desperate scramble, but now that was the only thing keeping him from falling.

Dreamy and Dabbler ran over, Papa Smurf also making his way over from behind them with some effort.

"Gargamel!" Papa Smurf arrived at the edge where Gargamel could see him.

"Papa… Smurf? Oh, noo, I'm _delusional_!" Gargamel cried.

"No, you're not delusional. Now... Give me your arm, Gargamel. We'll help you up." Papa Smurf's voice was calm. He gestured to the arm that was dangling by Gargamel's side.

"You can't lift me up - you're too small" Gargamel shot back.

"Dabbler and I will use a spell. But we need you to reach out your arm."

"…You're not Papa Smurf. This is all just cruel trickery! I won't let you-"

"Gargamel-"

"You're not the real Papa Smurf!"

"Gargamel, we're not trying to trick you, you need to listen-"

"Just for one _single_ day, I wanted to be left alone!" he said miserably. "I… I wasn't even trying to catch any of you!"

"You _need_ to give us your arm or you're going to fall!"

Gargamel fell silent, hesitating. But mistrust was still written all over his face. And in the meantime, he was starting to slip. His arm shook from the exhaustion of holding on.

He was slipping… and then he slipped.

They watched him fall.

Several metres he fell, into a stream so shallow it did nothing to lessen the impact.

… _Maybe there was a chance he'd be alright_? Pained noises rose up from where he lay.

"Come quickly. We must go and help." Papa urged.

"But how? We can't exactly jump after him, Papa Smurf."

Papa tried to set off at a run, but couldn't get far on his still sprained ankle. Dabbler ran up, with some herbs they'd collected in their basket earlier. "These should be good for a sprained ankle, right?"

Papa nodded, and soon Dabbler and Dreamy were following after him as he led the way, leaving a stunned and anxious Azrael.

"We can reach him." There was a long, but safe way around to get to where Gargamel had fallen.

At length, they arrived. Azrael's cries could still be heard from up above – the cat had elected not to move, not knowing the long way around to reach Gargamel.

Dabbler walked about briskly, examining the suffering wizard.

"His legs seem to be broken… He's still conscious…"

"What do we do...?" Dreamy muttered.

"We need to get him out of the stream. We need to get him help" said Papa Smurf.

"None of us can hope to lift him" Dabbler pointed out.

Dreamy looked at Dabbler. "A spell?"

Dabbler shook his head. "No, that spell's only good for a second or two at best to lift him up."

"Scruple... Where's Scruple?" Papa Smurf looked about. He turned to Gargamel. "We'll go get Scruple. Where is he?"

"What do you... Care?" Gargamel breathed out.

"Gargamel, we're trying to help!" Dabbler exclaimed.

"Gargamel..." There was a rare sharpness to Papas voice and his expression was very serious. "Where's Scruple."

No reply.

"Dreamy, go to Gargamel's hovel. It's the most likely place he'll be."

"You won't... Find him there."

"Then tell us where he is!"

"Why…"

"...You might not trust us, but you're going to have to let us help you, unless you want to continue to stay here stranded with little chance of anyone else finding you."

Gargamel strained against the pain to speak again. "He moved out... He's staying in the village..."

"The human village" Papa Smurf frowned.

"Papa Smurf, the closest human village is much too far, I can't smurf there quickly on my own." Dreamy pointed out, and Papa Smurf nodded.

"Of course not. Dreamy, I need you to go back to our village and then take Feathers there. Dabbler and I will stay here and see how we can help Gargamel in the meantime. And take some smurfs with you - I don't want you going into a human village alone."

"Yes, Papa Smurf." Once they confirmed again with Gargamel where Scruple could likely be found, Dreamy set off running steadily back the way they'd came, and back to the village.

He'd been jogging for some time when he saw Brainy come flying through the air and promptly land some metres in front of him.

"Smurfed out of the village again, huh?" Dreamy quipped as he ran by.

"H-hey! Wait for meee...!" Brainy called after him and raced to catch up.

"Don't you know that Papa Smurf says not to run, that it can be dangerous?" He asked as he ran alongside Dreamy.

 _Wow, my lucky day_ , Dreamy thought to himself dryly before replying. "Really? I think you're confused, Brainy. Landed on your head again, I see. Hefty goes for jogs all the time and it's not an issue."  
 _I think he means, and got mixed up with Papa Smurf saying we shouldn't run indoors..._ But he wasn't about to smurf Brainy that rope in the conversation.

"That's, er... Well I-I say that running is-"

"Besides, Papa told me to be as quick as I could."

"And I remember Papa Smurf saying... What I mean is..." finally, Brainy abandoned the thread. "Why are you... Why are we running?"

Dreamy's voice took on a more weighted tone. "Gargamel broke his legs. He's back there in a stream…"

Brainy looked concerned. "Did we-"

"No! We didn't do anything!" Dreamy snapped. "Gargamel didn't smurf where he was going!"

"Oh. So then... Well, it doesn't really smurf as part of our business…?" Brainy trailed off.

"Ah, yes, so we should just leave him out there to suffer. What a smurfy idea! _You_ should have been the one left behind at the village while _I_ had the chance to go on time travelling adventures. You would have fit right in."

"I don't find your tone very smurfy" Brainy replied crisply.

Dreamy was saved from having to reply as they had arrived back at the village.

* * *

"Scruple, huh? That scrawny little kid?" Grandpa mused.

"Oh, he's not a little kid anymore" Dreamy pointed out between pants. _And he never was 'little' by our standards anyway!_

"So Vanity, you coming along to go seek out Scruple?" Brainy asked. "After all, he can _hardly_ go alone!"

Vanity shrugged. "Well… I did have plans. I'd set aside this afternoon for reflection gazing in the River Smurf, but… I guess I'll come along." As long as he had his mirror, after all.

"Great! So that's the three of us, then." Brainy nodded.

Dreamy frowned. "Now wait just a- Brainy! I didn't say you could-"

Brainy held up a hand. "Dreamy, Dreamy, Dreamy. Papa Smurf would obviously want me to go with you! You need a _brave_ and _ingenious_ smurf to smurf by your side! Now don't you worry. I won't let you smurf there without me."

Dreamy groaned. So two smurfs were now coming with him, _neither_ of which he'd actually _asked_. "This isn't some fun adventure, Brainy! Gargamel's seriously injured…" _And the more time he stood around wasting words on the brick wall that was Brainy Smurf, the more time he was wasting_.

"Grandpa?" Dreamy asked hopefully. "I think you'd be a big help-"

Grandpa Smurf held up his hands. "Ohh, no. You don't need me; I'm sure you'll be fine." _Grandpa had already had enough travelling around and listening to Brainy's bluster for a lifetime. Otherwise, he probably would accompany Dreamy_.

Dreamy sighed. "Well, there is room for one more smurf… I've already wasted enough time as it is…" he turned to Hefty, who sighed.

"Sure, I'll come with ya, Dreamy."

Safe in the knowledge that at least one smurf going would not liable to be distracted by his own thoughts or reflection, he got Feathers ready and they all seated themselves atop promptly.

Before Feathers took off, Brainy made sure to give Dreamy a grin. "As you can see, you were wrong about me earlier. I, Brainy Smurf, am more than willing to help Gargamel our enemy if he is in need, therefore-"

Dreamy held up a hand. "Okay, okay! If you say so, Brainy…" He made sure to have Feathers take off before Brainy could start up again, or even change his mind.

* * *

The trees cleared, and the human village began to come into view. Feathers began to descend so that they could get a better look, circled around a little bit until they managed to identify the building that matched Gargamel's description.

"This is where he must be staying" Dreamy told the others. Feathers flew up, perched on a windowsill. The window was already open, but the shades were drawn.

"Okay… here we are, then" said Hefty as they hopped down from Feathers.

"I'll wait outside" Vanity suggested, "And keep watch?"

Hefty frowned. "Keep watch for what?"

Brainy cast a glance at Vanity. "His own reflection, no doubt."

"Okay, that's enough chit-chat" said Dreamy, wearing a determined expression. "Are we going to get Scruple or not? I'm going in." He swiftly slipped past the blinds and stepped into the room beyond, before Hefty knew it. Not wanting Dreamy to be in there alone, Hefty quickly followed after. Brainy and Vanity reluctantly stepped into the room too.

"It's so dark in here, I can hardly see myself" whispered Vanity, gazing earnestly at his mirror.

"…Scruple?" Dreamy called out.

"What if he's not here?" Hefty wondered.

"Well, that would just be annoying. He better be here. What are we to smurf if he's not-"

A loud curse and sudden movement came from off to the side of the room as Scruple began to sit up. He swore again as he began to make out the smurfs in the darkness.

"Scruple! Gargamel, he-" Hefty quickly dodged out of the way as something suddenly went flying right at him. It missed him, went past the blinds, past the window and out into the street beyond. Scruple had already grabbed another nearby object to throw.

"Stop, Scruple! _Stop!_ " Dreamy insisted. "Just let us speak!"

"Urgh… What the hell do you guys want?! Do you _mind_? I'm trying to sleep here!" Scruple's voice was much lower than the returned smurfs remembered.

"…It's the afternoon" Hefty said simply.

"Yeah, it's also _Saturday_ " Scruple shot back.

"Gargamel's badly hurt. He can't walk, he needs assistance, that's why we're here" Dreamy said quickly, before Scruple could throw anything else at them.

"Gargy? What the-"

"He had a nasty fall."

Scruple paused. "Okay, yeah. Ever since his mother died…" He suddenly seemed to realise something, and started swearing heavily. "Today…! Today must be the… it's the anniversary."

He got up, stepped across the messy floor, let some light into the room with a wince.

"Okay, whatever, I'm up. I'll grab a doctor and then let's go to wherever Gargy is."

"You're going to go outside, looking like _that_?" Vanity coughed, looked away from Scruple's immediate glare. "I mean, if you insist…"

Scruple _was_ looking rather dishevelled.

"I'm sorry, but not _all_ of us just have fancy little flower hats lying around" came his reply. "And I _don't_ think we can afford to waste any time- wait, wait." He caught sight of Brainy. "You're wearing glasses."

Brainy didn't know how to reply to that.

"You're… hold up, hold up. You're that, oh my god… You're the one who doesn't know how to shut the hell up."

"I haven't said anything to you this entire time!" Brainy protested.

Scruple ignored his words, nodding. "I remember you. Wow, haven't seen you in a while. Thought you must have been one of the ones that died with Papa Smurf or whatever."

"Um, hello? You haven't seen _me_ in a while either" Vanity pointed out, then gestured to Hefty as an afterthought. "…Or him."

"Huh? Okay… If you say so. I thought that flower was a new thing you must have been trying or something. Whatever."

"We have to get going" said Dreamy, trying to bring everyone back into focus for once. He could see by the expressions of Vanity and Hefty that they were rather displeased that Scruple could remember Brainy but neither of them, but he could not allow them to start on it – they'd already wasted enough time. Scruple had swiftly managed to upset all three of the other smurfs, and there was no use waiting until it was Dreamy's turn.

Scruple hurried to fetch a doctor, and then the smurfs rode on Feathers, leading Scruple and the doctor on their way to Gargamel.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

* * *

"Just what are those things?" the doctor asked Scruple, eyeing the smurfs atop that bird of theirs which led the way.

"Uhh… Those are my pets?"

The physician's voice sounded rather bored. "Pets aren't allowed in the room you're staying in."

"Oh, god damn it. A-actually, they don't live with me, doc. And they're very well-trained. To get help. Like they're doing right now."

"They're wearing… clothes? And riding on top of a bird."

"Yes." Scruple nodded, "They tend to do that." Somehow, he wasn't pressed any further beyond that.

"Oh yeah" Scruple added in a louder voice, "And they can't talk either. I mean obviously. They're all _very_ stupid creatures."

He held back a laugh at the looks the smurfs gave him as the physician stared fixedly ahead, Scruple's goal decidedly achieved. _What's wrong, smurfs? Why not speak up and defend yourselves? Ha!_ Their stubborn unwillingness to interact with unknown humans… He was damned if he _wasn't_ going to take advantage of that.

Gargamel began to come into view, and so Scruple hastened his pace forward. He was just _lying_ there in a stream that hardly reached Scruple's ankles. Next to Gargamel, there was also some kind of red speck, which grew clearer as Scruple approached. Was that - ?!

"Holy –" he rushed over, leaving the doctor trailing a fair bit behind. "Papa Smurf?!"

Papa Smurf looked up. "Ah, you're here! My, you really have grown!"

"Nah, can't be you. Come on. Same stupid disguise again, right?" Scruple insisted as Feathers touched down to the ground and the other smurfs came over. "Not falling for that again. I mean, you died, right?"

"Ahem, not at all. The rumours of my death are greatly exaggera- wait, _again_?!" Papa Smurf shot both Dreamy and Dabbler a suspicious glance.

"You didn't mention that Papa Smurf is back?" Dabbler asked the others, failing to notice the look.

"Oh. Yeah. I don't think we did, huh…" Dreamy realised. "Well, what do you know…"

Another voice pierced the air. "Will… will you all stop your infernal…!"

"Gargy!" Scruple exclaimed, noticing the extent of the bad shape the emaciated wizard was in, and said the first thing that came to mind. "…You look awful."

"Oh, speak for yourself!" Gargamel spat through the pain.

"You smurfs had better scram. The doc's coming. But uhh…" Scruple trailed off uncomfortably, unwilling to go on.

Papa Smurf smiled knowingly. "You're welcome, Scruple."

By the time the doctor was close enough to attend to Gargamel, the smurfs had slipped off into the trees.

"Took you long enough!" both Gargamel and Scruple unwittingly found themselves saying at once.

"Well I'm not as young as I used to be. Hmm" he started directing all his focus to assisting the currently helpless wizard, apart from casting a single aside comment to Scruple. "Your pets ran off."

Scruple shrugged. "They're outdoor pets."

* * *

"…The nerve of him to call us – but especially _me_ – stupid! And that's not even to mention what he said about me earlier…!"

They were now back at the village. Papa Smurf, Dabbler and Hefty watched passively from a distance as Brainy ranted in earnest to the nearest smurf, who just so happened to be Dreamy. Dreamy was rather animated in his responses, irritated, throwing back remarks, trying to cut through and put a stop to Brainy's nonstop speech. It looked like it would only be a matter of time before Brainy would get kicked out of the village once again.

"Don't you think Dreamy's rather… lively right now?" Papa Smurf observed.

Understanding dawned on Dabbler. "Gosh, I think you're right, Papa Smurf. I don't think I remember the last time Dreamy didn't seem… detached and withdrawn." _He always seems so miserable, just beneath the surface, but he keeps himself so closed off that it's always so hard to tell. I worry about him sometimes_.

"Now that you mention it, Dreamy was pretty talkative when we went to get Scruple. But other than that he hasn't been very talkative lately" added Hefty.

Papa Smurf pondered in silence before speaking again. "What I think Dreamy needs… is distraction. He needs to spend some time away from his own thoughts, to be drawn out of them for a while. I think that would be good for him, and we can try to help him where we can. And… It seems that any distraction large enough, be it negative or positive, can draw him out…"

 _But it's so hard to get any kind of reaction or response out of Dreamy these days_ , Dabbler thought to himself. "So what are you saying? "Negative distraction", so Brainy…"

"You don't suppose that…" Hefty trailed off, an amused grin flickering on his face. _…That Brainy is so profoundly annoying, he has the power to distract Dreamy enough to get him to actually come out of his shell, if only in a desperate attempt to get Brainy to stop?_

It sounded like Papa Smurf had just implied as much. But he wasn't about to say it out loud.

Brainy still had yet to be tossed out of the village by Dreamy. Maybe he wouldn't be. Dreamy probably didn't fully realise it, but perhaps he had refrained so far because he could sense on some level that his chatter could be useful for him.

* * *

 _In the "past"…_

"Did you try talking to him?"

"Yeah. I did."

"And?"

Poet shook his head, and Tracker sighed.

"Well. What are we going to do?"

" _This isn't the time to hide away. We need you, Scaredy."_

" _No, you don't."_

" _How… how are we going to… The village can't go on indefinitely without guidance."_

 _There was no uncertainty in the way that Scaredy spoke. No room for argument, even though his tone was devoid of any harshness. "Well, you're going to have to figure that out. We're going to have to manage."_

" _But why, Scaredy, why? We've barely been managing as it is. We can't…"_

 _Scaredy spoke with a strange calm. "You don't have a choice."_

"Without Scaredy to be the village leader… The whole reason we asked him, chose him is because he can really unite us…"

"Wait" Dabbler approached them from behind, "You… you were going to make Scaredy the village leader? This is the first I'm hearing of this."

Poet and Tracker looked up.

"You mean… _Replacing_ Papa Smurf with… with someone else? With _Scaredy_?" Dabbler continued on.

"No one is being replaced by anyone, but Papa and the others… they've been gone a really long time. This village has been without a proper leader for so long."

"So… you'd think we'd be used to it by now, right? We can continue to manage ourselves, instead of needing to elevate a fellow smurf to a position of leadership."

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway. Because Scaredy… I don't know what's smurfed into him but he's completely refusing. So I guess we will be "continuing to manage ourselves", as you say."

"Maybe that's for the best... And what are you saying, anyway? We're smurfs! We stick together, look out for each other."

"But, we still need-"

Dabbler shook his head, not letting him go on. "And what were you saying just now, about him uniting us? Because to me, it seemed that all Scaredy was doing was dividing us."

"A few outliers-"

"If it wasn't discussed with everyone… it's not any kind of uniting, is it? So instead of relying on some kind of other outside force for help, why don't we all start trying harder ourselves?"

* * *

 _In the "present"…_

There was a knock on the door. Scruple went over, opened it. Nothing there.

"Down here!"

It was a smurf.

"Uhh… Hello? What are _you_ after?"

"Me? Uh, well, you know… _Sassette_ is really worried and… We were wondering how Gargamel is doing!"

"Oh" Scruple said. "Uh, well, he got pneumonia. Lying in the water that long and all, can't have been good."

The smurf's face fell. "He what?"

"But" Scruple said hastily, "the doc says he should make a full recovery."

"I-I see… Well that's good…"

Another smurf walked up now. Scruple hadn't noticed them.

"I could have a quick look over Gargamel. Smurfmonia isn't very smurfy at all…"

"And how would _you_ be able to help?"

"That's what I do. I'm Doctor Smurf."

Scruple couldn't help it; a laugh slipped out from him at that. "Oh? Completed your qualifications at _smurf medical school_? At the little smurf university?"

The smurf claiming to be a doctor frowned.

"Ahh… Well you have to admit. The thought is pretty god damn funny."

"I'm trying to make an offer to _help_. And besides, did the doctor that saw to Gargamel even go to medical school?"

"I sure hope so… I mean, he always was one of the more reliable doctors in the village at least. He saw to me when I was… hurt."

Scruple hadn't meant to intentionally invoke that, make the smurfs uncomfortable. But he didn't really care either way. Let them feel uncomfortable.

"So, can I come and have a quick look?" Doctor Smurf asked.

Scruple toyed around with a possible biting response in his mind. _You guys just feel bad, don't you? You're just trying to somehow make up for the stuff you've pulled over the years_.

But instead, he just shrugged, and said, "I don't know. I mean, it's not _my_ house… right?"

 _It's really strange, isn't it? I mean he_ _was_ _actively trying to kill you, eat you or turn you into gold or whatever it is. And here you are, checking if the guy's okay. What gives?_

"Scruple!" Gargamel's sickly voice called from inside the hovel. "Who are you talking to?! Hurry it up already!"

"I'm talking to the smurfs, you old man!" Scruple called back irritably. "They wanna come _inside_ your _humble abode_!" he added with heavy sarcasm.

"What?! Send them away! Why are you-" Gargamel's voice broke off, replaced by coughing.

Scruple turned back to face the smurfs. "Sure, whatever, you can come on in. But _with_ Papa Smurf. He's around here somewhere, isn't he?"

Papa Smurf emerged from nearby. "Of course. Sorry to be a bother, Scruple, but Sassette insisted we stop by."

"Right. But she didn't come herself?"

The smurf that was neither Papa nor the doctor one spoke. "A little dangerous for a smurfling, we still think. Speaking of which: don't bother trying anything."

"As if I would."

* * *

"He's going to be fine."

"Ya sure?" Sassette asked hopefully.

"Yep! Gargamel's sure had it rough lately but he's still going to come out of it okay. So there's no need to worry anymore."

It was Architect relating the news to the smurfling.

Dreamy was standing with Papa Smurf nearby.

"It's getting colder… Which means that the anniversary is fast approaching. Strange to think about" said Dreamy.

Papa Smurf looked questioningly at him. "Anniversary?"

"Yeah. Of when you and the others all… left. We made a point of observing the day every year. But now this year… You're here with us, so we don't need to anymore." Dreamy paused. "It was kind of one of the things that brought us all together." He was going to say more, but got rather distracted because something – no, some _one_ – was flying nearby.

"Hello!" a voice called cheerfully.

"Oh, _hi_ Cupid. Come to shoot me with one of your stupid arrows again?" Architect asked darkly.

Cupid chuckled good-naturedly. "Not for a few years yet, I'm afraid. I'm just passing through, actually."

Surprise lit up Architect's face. "Wait, wh-"

"Papa Smurf?!" Cupid exclaimed in complete shock, catching sight of the red-clothed smurf. "Aren't you supposed to be dead?"

"Not at all"

"Are you sure?"

"Quite."

"Oh, he was never dead, just missing" Smurfette added helpfully.

"Oh, apologies. It's so good to see you, Papa Smurf. I'm glad you're still alive. I really thought you were gone…"

"I get that a lot" Papa sighed.

"We were missing in _time_ actually. Jumping continuously from one point in time to another" Smurfette informed him, and a thoughtful expression crossed her face for a few moments as Cupid processed this information before she continued. "…Actually, you should probably know about our time travelling. Didn't anyone tell you?"

"I remember hearing something about how Papa Smurf, among several other smurfs including you Smurfette, were gone… But I don't know how I could have possibly known you were time travelling."

"Because" Smurfette said seriously, "You were there. We met _you_ , when you were younger."

"You…?" Cupid scratched his head in bewilderment.

"You what now?" Dreamy asked, now concentrating intensely on the conversation at hand.

"Van Garg? Turning the arrows of love into arrows of hate?" Smurfette prompted.

"The arrows of…?" Cupid smacked at his balding head in sudden recognition. "Now there's something I haven't thought about for centuries! But my, that was…" He tried counting on his fingers and gave up. "And you're telling me that…?"

Smurfette nodded.

"Oh. Oh, wow… Some of it's coming back to me. It _was_ you. All of you were there…"

"You. You met up with them?!" Dreamy abruptly burst out.

Cupid took little notice of the outburst and continued to address Papa Smurf and Smurfette. "I thought you were… Well, you know, as I said, no longer of this world. I knew- I heard that you were – gone, missing, what have you! But if I had known at all that time travel factored into it… well, perhaps I could have pieced it together-"

"You're telling me- okay, no. No." Dreamy took a deep breath before continuing. "You're telling me that the entire time, you _maybe_ could have _told us_ that they were still alive, and travelling through time, and that there was still some hope left to be had?!"

Papa Smurf put a hand on Dreamy's shoulder. "Cupid wouldn't have been able to lead you to us."

"He would have been able to give us _some_ information. We had nothing. We didn't know what had happened or what was going on! It would have made a huge difference! Argh!" Dreamy kicked at the ground in frustration, started storming off.

Cupid hovered there in the air awkwardly, looking rather guilty.

"It was uh, good to see you again Cupid" Papa told him briefly, and hurried after Dreamy.

* * *

"It didn't have to be over six years. We could have found you first. Or, we would have had a much better chance at it. So much could have easily been avoided."

Papa Smurf patted Dreamy on the back. "It is what it is, I'm afraid…"

The two smurfs sat in silence for a little bit before Papa continued.

"But we're here now, my little smurf, and that's what matters. No time crystals can split up this village permanently. We're all together once more and we'll move forward together. That's what really matters."

Dreamy nodded slowly. "Yeah... Yeah. I know. I just- You're right. It's no use dwelling on it, as you say." He sighed.

Papa nodded in turn. "It can be difficult sometimes, trying to put it all into perspective. And that's okay. But as long as we're all trying our best to be as smurfy as we can be, we'll have many good times to look forward to."

"I hope so."

"We _will_ , don't you worry."

"Alright. I believe it, and everything you said… I just want to be alone for a little bit."

"Okay." Papa Smurf gave Dreamy a hug. "I'll come back to get you after a little bit. I think I should be getting back to the others too."

Papa left him, respecting Dreamy's wishes, and Dreamy sat quietly, not thinking of much at all, simply enjoying the nature around him for a while.

* * *

It was evening, and dinner was about to be served.

Papa Smurf held Baby close and walked carefully through the snow, over to the mushroom-shaped house. Gave a knock at the door.

"It's dinnertime, and we won't start without you" he said amiably. "Can't have a nice meal without everysmurf there."

There was a rustling inside, and the door opened to reveal Scaredy.

"I saved you a seat at the dinnertable, next to me" Papa told him.

"Thank you, Papa."

Over six years had inevitably impacted each of the smurfs left behind, each of them in different ways. There was a huge amount that Papa Smurf still didn't know about. But even though he didn't know exactly why Scaredy tended to be rather reclusive these days, that was hardly going to stop him from doing his best to acknowledge him and make him feel included just as much as the other smurfs.

"Din!" Baby announced.

"Yes!" Papa Smurf said happily, cradling the youngest smurf of all in his arms. "Dinner, dinner!"

"Deeeeee" Baby cooed. "DeeeeeeNUH!" His hand wrapped tightly around Scaredy's outstretched finger.

Scaredy's expression was enveloped by a smile. In that moment, looking upon Baby, he couldn't help feeling like everything was right in the world, and that everything was going to be okay.

 _End._

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

That's a wrap! But it's not over yet – this fic might be over but there WILL be more. Please tune in to the next smurfs fic that I'll be uploading soon – keep your eyes peeled everyone, and watch this space.

Huge thanks to all who have taken the time to read, favourite and follow, and ESPECIALLY those who have left comments. I LOVE reading feedback and hearing what people actually think, otherwise it feels like I'm just groping around in the dark. XD. It always gives me a huge boost each time and a whole lot of motivation.

I'd also like to respond to some questions by guest commenter Eryx, even though some have already been somewhat answered in this final chapter. I've responded over on my smurfs blog since otherwise this chapter would be way too long (hope the link works, if not I'll fix it ASAP. Put the dots in the needed places/remove spaces to access it):

schtroumpf - a - lunettes dot tumblr dot com post/179961351025/response-to-questions-about-my-fic-by-guest

Writing this has really been an experience, what with it being my first real fic and all.

The final thing I want to mention is I need to acknowledge and credit someone I still consider to be a good internet friend; a fellow smurfologist. My discussions with them from years ago really got me thinking and were a big source of inspiration that fuelled this story. If you're reading this, I hope you know who you are, and PLEASE shoot me a message so we can catch up. I miss you :P


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